Terry Prone: Sinn Féin’s stale predictability leaves it as cutting edge as a butter knife

The chronic outrage, the same old faces on the front bench, and Mary Lou McDonald's portentous tone are leaving floating voters cold

Put Mary Lou in the Taoiseach’s questions slot and there she is, giving out in slow, uninspired terms and in precisely the same tone each and every time. Picture: Maxwells/PA

It'll take a few weeks before our brains adjust. Before, on hearing “The Taoiseach, today…” on radio, those brains stop providing us, instantly, with a picture of Leo Varadkar. It’ll also take a few weeks before our brain cells get used to the new faces at Cabinet and in the minister of state ranks. 

Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, for different reasons, handed their party a gift not to be underestimated. The gift of visual refreshment.