Leo: A Very Modern Taoiseach

by Philip Ryan, Niall O'Connor

Leo Varadkar's rise to the office of Taoiseach is a remarkable tale from any perspective, taking in personal struggle and political intrigue. The son of an Indian immigrant, this outspoken young politician came out as gay amid the full glare of Ireland's media, before orchestrating a secret two-year campaign to become leader of the country. Along the way, he put his political career on the line to defend police whistleblowers and survived an internal party purge after backing the loser in a failed leadership heave against Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

Now, in this first full-length biography, journalists Philip Ryan and Niall O'Connor provide the definitive account of the most talked-about Irish politician in decades. Family, friends and colleagues have provided exclusive behind-the-scenes detail on Varadkar's meteoric rise to power, painting an intimate portrait of the man shaping Ireland's future.

366 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 30, 2018

Reviews

[Aine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really made me question what I’m doing with my life.

Ryan and O’Connor’s main purpose seems to be to portray Varadkar as that awkward but smart friend (eg “I was right but insensitive”) that you can’t quite explain when you meet new people except to say that they’re a fundamentally good person who doesn’t come across well. Along the way it tries to explain away any “problems”, such as Varadkar’s father’s self-description as a socialist (a cultural misunderstanding despite Varadkar Snr spending the majority of his life in Ireland), the attendance at a private school (so his sister could study science), and a variety of statements that came across as sexist, classist or just plain rude (Ireland doesn’t need a popularity backlash because Varadkar speaks the truth even when it’s uncomfortable). Mostly a list of events, the book doesn’t engage beyond the most superficial level in Varadkar’s politics; mostly Ryan and O’Connor go along with the traditional narrative eg hard choices had to be made, Fine Gael steered Ireland back from the abyss, etc.

The problem is that I knew this was what I was getting myself into. It wasn’t a surprise turn of events. And yet somehow I chose to spend five precious hours of my life reading this when I could have been doing anything else. Why? What does this say about my life? At what point did I make the choice that led me to this point?

At least the Dublin City Library network meant I didn’t have to spend any money on it.

[Stephen Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent overview of Leo Varadkar's political career but not much more. You get the impression that Philip Ryan and Niall O'Connor are just mouthpieces for what Fine Gael's ideal account of Leo would be. It glosses over many issues that I feel warrant a little more investigation such as Leo's more right wing opinions on gay marriage that he'd expressed before publicly coming out, the repeal movement is also kind shoehorned in only being given a few pages at the end despite probably being the biggest event to occur in the country since Leo became Taoiseach. The whole book feels very surface level and I don't feel like I come out of it having any more of a deeper understand of Leo as a human being than I did before reading it.

[Cormac Ó Fearghail · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book follows the theory of ‘Great Man of History’ which is deeply flawed, in its own right. I initially thought this would be just a brief summary of Leo Varadkar’s political career to date, while it does gives us that, it also aims to portray him as the great reforming leader through modernising Ireland, by passing Same-sex marriage and the legalisation of abortion. It’s a discredit to many activists who made these achievements possible and instead this book should be seen as fortune of one individual to be part of the political make-up when these events occurred. The book has little to no critical analysis, of its sources nor its subject matter, thus making it a poor book overall.

[Orlaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors got alot of access to the Taoiseach, family and friends. As close to an authorised biography as you are going to get while the Taoiseach is still in power. I learned a few things - that he was genuinely interested in road safety because his maternal grandfather was killed in a freak accident. That's one of the reasons why he was so interested in what Maurice McCabe had to say about penalty points.

Errors too - Simon Harris was supposed to be tasked with drafting the Abortion legislation - not supervising it, drafting it. It made it sound like he was sitting down typing it on to vellum. It ignores the role of the civil servants in the Department of Health and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read about Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. But one wonders if he was not of mixed race back ground and gay would people in general be interested in this book . In did the fact the up too a couple of decides ago being gay was illegal in Ireland to have a gay leader of the country who has a partner is quite a move forward in Ireland.