Prime minister at 34: Youngest PM

Once upon a time people measured their place in life’s cycle by comparisons with the local policeman. If that officer, he or she, seemed impossibly callow then the time had come to accept that time had moved on and that the first flush of youth had indeed faded.

The relative scarcity of gardaí on the beat has made that comparator less available than it once was but there are others. Ireland’s captain at the recent World Cup in Japan, Rory Best, is 37, an exceptional age for an international athlete.

That Leo Varadkar was just 38 when he succeeded Enda Kenny as Taoiseach put’s Best’s durability in context.Especially in a world where the 77 year-old Joe Biden hopes to replace the 73-year-old Donald Trump next year.

The goalposts have, however, been moved in a spectacular way. Finland’s Sanna Marin, aged just 34, will be elected the world’s youngest prime minister tomorrow. She will lead a five-party coalition. From an Irish perspective this sets two benchmarks — her age and her gender.

It seems unlikely that we will match either even in the coming decades.