The Best and Worst Taoiseach In Irish History

While not called Taoiseach, WT Cosgrave must have been one of the best national leaders. He held the country together, got us massive international recognition and oversaw the building of the National Grid (europes first) and Ardnacrusha power plant which was the largest in the world. That was a remarkable achievment for the Free State as it emerged from civil war.

Lol a great lad all right.

Was quiet happy to have most of the population of Ireland with no rights, they even have a statue for the fooker.

And like a fool I clicked into this thread.

Leo Varadkar hates poor people, during the pandemic he was asked about the 350 covid payments for people who had to give up work, he was asked about the very high earners who wouldnt be used to living on such a small amount of money, the look of genuine sadness, compassion & empathy on his face for the wealthy people who were now going to have to 'get by' on 350 a week until they could get back to work. Ive never seen him express such concern for people who were being made homeless or children relying on soup kitchens for food or suffering developmental delays having been raised in small hotel rooms. Years ago, when questioned about the rising number of people who couldnt afford to move out of their parents homes to either rent or buy, his response was that 'parents help to pay for their adult children to move out & buy their own homes' insinuating that the house prices & rents dont need to come down & wages dont need to go up because everyone has the bank of mammy & daddy to rely on.. this was obviously his experience & he's so totally out of touch with anyone outside of his social class that he didnt give a second thought to the millions of people who dont have families willing or able to financially support their children & besides that, he put that message out there creating feelings of guilt & shame for many people who couldnt offer or access family support. Then he demonised people on social welfare while simultaneously highering their weekly allowance causing anger & suspicion towards people dependant on the state.

He put all his attention into tech & large american companies like no other industry exists, while nurses, teachers, social workers, childcare workers, sna's all struggled desperately to put food on the table as their working conditions worsened, wages reduced and more working people fell into poverty disproportionately effecting female workers & single mothers while forcing educated workers across all sectors to emigrate, the only ones who have any benefit of staying in Ireland are mostly male dominated fields such as tech & finance. So our health care, education and social supports are failing while the government reaps the profits from the big corporate companies.

He is running this entire country into the ground!

We'd just joined the EEC which gave us the legs to get away from being dependent on the UK.

Instead there was just mass panic about trying to figure out how to protect our artificially propped up (by protectionism) clothes/shoes/car assembly industries from real competition. There were also attempts to stop basic changes like allowing married women to keep working, and pay everyone the same as married men (single men got less in many jobs) with the idea that it wasn't affordable; when increasing the labour force and spending potential would both have helped rather than hindered

So much could have been done then and wasn't. The agrifood revolution of the 90s could have happened 20 years earlier with better governance for instance - Cosgrave took over just as we now had 7 other, richer countries in a common market (not the single market) beyond the UK.

Not by the latter half or his term they weren't. The UK still was, Sick Man of Europe era, and we stayed stuck to them economically.

I did say this wasn't a common take on worst!

Judging by the votes they got, the best were de Valera, Lynch and Ahern. Lynch was the leader of the last one party government, having got the biggest majority in the history of the State. He knew what people liked, so obviously they voted to abolish property tax, water charges, bin charges and motor/road tax. de Valera was the longest serving, Ahern is second. Obviously as part of coalitions, but the people loved what he had to offer, so he won three consecutive elections. What was not to like about tiger economics, with generous payments to savers and pensioners, and easily accessible credit.

The worst has to be Leo Varadkar,

He is a vile man with no connection to the common man & no concept how the majority of Irish people live, He has no interest in helping the people of Ireland & no respect for the position he is in ,

Its all about him , the sooner he is gone the better for the nation ,

Best: Bertie

Worst: Leo

Do you think knowledge is hereditary?

I am no fan of Dev but you could not accuse him of being interested in personal riches. In his last years he fretted over his nursing home costs and whether he could afford them.

"Responding to a question from host David McCullagh, who asked him if his use of the quote was appropriate, Varadkar responded: “I think any quote is appropriate if it’s appropriate in its context, whether it was written in a movie or by a poet.”

“Yeah, in the context, it was in the context of our ambitions as a country and I know that some people may be snobbish about those things, that a quote from a movie is different from a quote from a poet or a great author like yourself, but I don’t see it that way,” Varadkar added.

While McCullagh noted that it was a trivial issue, he pressed Varadkar further on whether his use of the quote was appropriate considering that many people had died as a result as Covid-19 and it has had a significant impact on the livelihood of thousands of people in Ireland.

“I think any quote in any speech is appropriate if it’s in context and, you know, I’ve used quotes from poets and other writers precisely to deal with the issue that you have raised,” Varadkar responded.

“The fact that there are over 2,000 people on this island who have died as a consequence of Covid, that they have families who are grieving, and there are 100,000 people out of work.

“And I’ve used quotes that I identified with that I think explain some of the feelings that they’re having and the darkness around that.”

Asked if it was a distraction from the serious message about Covid-19 in Ireland, Varadkar replied: “I think it was a distraction for some people, not for me.”

This is what i mean when i said he has no respect for his position quoting mean girls while addressing an nation in lockdown , who where losing loved ones, out of work , not seeing elderly relatives & missing important hospital appointments & hes making jokes ,

I swear to god iv no idea how he hasn't been booted out his arse , the lad has absolutely no respect for our nation ,

DeVelera was the worst. He held the Country back for decades. Worst thing to ever happen to come to Ireland was DeVelera.

Sean LeMass was the best. He set us back on the right course to being a modern Country.

What about the Irish Press ownership?

The fact that he was ultimately unsuccessful in enriching himself is moot!

The hoi polloi love to see their politicians having fun with language. Bonus points if it annoys the highbrow media. Bertie Speak has a Wikipedia page. He used to like to upset the apple tart. So fair play to Leo for getting down with the common people by using film quotes, as well as more highbrow references.

If nothing could be done, it wouldn't matter who was in charge. No point in having some demagogue selling false hope.