Irish Examiner view: Democracy is meaningless if it does not apply to all

Leo Varadkar, former Taoiseach, Tánaiste Micheál Martin, and Taoiseach Simon Harris in the Dáil Chamber at Leinster House. Picture: Maxwells

Yesterday Leo Varadkar stepped down formally as Taoiseach. There was no suspense associated with the event: The Dublin West TD surprised the country a couple of weeks ago with the unexpected announcement that he was leaving the hot seat, and the uncertainty surrounding his successor hardly lasted 24 hours.

His Fine Gael colleague, Simon Harris, was quick out of the blocks, emerging as the only credible candidate to lead the party. 

He duly took the reins officially on Tuesday as Ireland’s youngest ever Taoiseach (relieving Mr Varadkar, incidentally, of that title).

We have come to expect a low-key handover of power, with seismic changes reserved for those directly involved. 

When Seán Duignan wrote a memoir of his time as government press secretary to Albert Reynolds, he recalled the scene after Reynolds resigned as Taoiseach at Áras an Uachtaráin. 

When the motorcade pulled out of the Áras driveway, Reynolds’s car went one way, but the Garda motorcycle outriders peeled off in the opposite direction.

The political theatre on show in Leinster House on Tuesday may have been voluble at times, but the essential promise of a democratic society was unthreatened — that power is peacefully transferred from one person to another with no illegal involvement.

Recent events overseas have shown that this transfer of power is not something that should ever be taken for granted. 

The dystopian scenes in the US on January 6, 2020, as thousands of rioters invaded the seat of government in protest at Donald Trump losing the presidential election, provide the ultimate contrast — and the ultimate warning.

If a democracy which originated in the 18th century can be threatened in this manner, then we cannot afford any complacency here.

That complacency can take different forms. It might be obvious to warn against existential threats to our political system, but democracy can be undermined in other ways.

A meeting of an Oireachtas committee on disabilities could not be held in the Seanad chamber as planned last Monday due to a broken lift. 

As committee chairman Michael Moynihan, a Fianna Fáil TD, said: “If Joe Biden was coming today and using that lift, that lift would be fixed.”

Democracy is meaningless if it does not apply to all.

Social media: Consequences to false claims

A different threat to democracy can be glimpsed in a story reported here yesterday regarding Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

Mr Martin is perusing “false and defamatory” advertisements that were posted about him on social media site X last month. 

Having been forced to seek a separate court order against Google in relation to scam cryptocurrency ads late last year, Mr Martin has said online abuse and the targeting of politicians is “at a level that we haven’t experienced before in Ireland”.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin  is perusing 'false and defamatory' advertisements that were posted about him on social media site X last month. 

That targeting is a serious problem for public representatives, but there is also a sobering lesson here for those who are not engaged in politics. 

If one of the most powerful public representatives in the country is forced to go to the law twice in the space of a year to protect his good name on social media, where does that leave ordinary citizens?

Mr Martin made that point himself, but he also identified the key issue with such cases when raising questions about the platforms which not only facilitate falsehoods but earn money by doing so.

“We do need to know who is behind all of this and why are the social media companies taking the revenue,” he said. 

“These are ads that are defamatory, that are false. So I think I have an obligation to the public good to try and pursue this as far as I can.” 

It is unlikely that many people will entertain much sympathy for the companies in question, which can be quick to deploy a dubious argument to justify themselves, claiming to act as a platform rather than a publisher, thus absolving themselves of responsibility in the traditional sense for the material on their sites. 

In that context, the fact that so many social media companies have been caught collecting users’ personal data illegally would be a rich irony if it were not so serious.

The need for Mr Martin to resort to the courts is dispiriting on one hand, but social media companies must learn that there are real-life consequences for their actions. This is a case with ramifications which go far beyond party politics or individual personalities.

La Rochelle in Cork: Ronan O'Gara’s learnings

This newspaper captured Ronan O’Gara’s arrival in Cork Airport this week, when our rugby columnist was shepherding his La Rochelle team through customs on their way to Fota Island Hotel and Resort.

La Rochelle face Leinster in Saturday’s Champions Cup quarter-final at the Aviva Stadium and are to spend the week preparing on Leeside.

Cork native O’Gara was happy to be home (“I haven’t been here for a long time,” he said. “The boys are buzzing as well so it’s very exciting.”) and is obviously hoping that spending match week away from the focus and pressure back home in France will benefit his side.

Observers will keep a close eye on O’Gara’s fashion choices this week. 

Ronan O'Gara at Cork Airport with his La Rochelle team before their Champions Cup quarter-final match against Leinster. Picture: Dan Linehan

Before La Rochelle played Leinster last year, he wore a red top for a press conference, leading to suggestions he was trolling Leinster fans by dressing in Munster colours.

On that occasion, O’Gara said his usual top was in the wash. 

One wonders what the laundry bag will produce when the coach faces the media this week.