Sarah Harte: Learn how to fail — and learn to embrace the normality of it

Tall poppy syndrome, although not exclusively an Irish trait, does seem especially embedded in our psyche

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar checks his Christmas cracker with Alina Chorna, five, from Ukraine, at Vicar St, Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless

Wed, 21 Dec, 2022 - 02:00

Sarah Harte is a lawyer, a published, prize-winning fiction writer and works as a strategist for a domestic violence organisation.

Last Saturday, when Leo Varadkar was confirmed as Taoiseach for the second time, he spoke about children and “making it possible to dream big dreams”. Two separate matters recently have caused me to wonder about our national attitude to success and failure.

The first was the commentary that followed the recent RTÉ documentary on Seán Quinn.