Fergus Finlay: Understand Leo's upbringing and you understand the man

Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson. At precisely the same time as our caretaker Taoiseach was arming us against a global pandemic, his British counterpart was behaving utterly irresponsibly.

In one vital respect, we are all in Leo Varadkar’s debt, and he deserves a distinguished place in Ireland’s modern history. In another, he will be remembered, I think, for one colossal failure. Both have to do with his background, upbringing, and temperament.

Let me explain. Leo Varadkar will be remembered, oddly, as the best caretaker Taoiseach Ireland ever had. He went into a general election over-full of confidence in January 2020, and it was a disaster. His party lost 15 seats and ended up third.