Tadgh McNally: Fine Gael has good reason to wish Leo Varadkar would just go away

With the party's rural TDs still smarting after the fuel protests earlier this month, and the looming by-election in rural Galway-West, the former taoiseach's remarks on rural Ireland have not gone down well

Leo Varadkar and then tánaiste Simon Coveney at the mart in Fermoy, Co Cork, with then agriculture Michael Creed and local candidate for the 2020 general election Pa O’Driscoll.

“I’ve always rejected attempts to create an artificial divide between rural Ireland and urban Ireland — to play one off against the other — East v West, Dublin v the rest.

“We are one nation, and few Dubs are more than a generation or two away from rural Ireland."