Varadkar and Verona were never going to be a perfect politcal match

INTERNET dating is not without its hazards, as some of its practitioners would have us know. There are those who end up emotionally put upon by the whole experience. One way or another, the decision to ‘hook up’ with somebody who is essentially a stranger cannot but be without risk.

British journalist and author Christina Patterson, author of an aptly named autobiography ‘The Art of Not Falling Apart’, has provided some classic examples of her troubles with men first encountered online. A recurring problem is that they are simply not on her wavelength.

And so it has been in those fitful interactions between tough-talking haulier chief Verona Murphy and Leo Varadkar. This time the issue was hard chaw politics rather than matters romantic. But their relationship was somewhat redolent of those online strangers who get together only to find intangible barriers keep them apart. Try as they might, there would be no meeting of minds between the Fine Gael leader and his Wexford by-election hopeful.

On a surface level, it seemed Fine Gael had landed a dream candidate. She ticked so many boxes. Intelligent and articulate, she had forged a successful business in the rough and tough haulage industry. Sounding off on radio and television, her centreright views just about hit the right note for the Fine Gael heartbeat.

Yet, in retrospect, someone should have struck a cautionary note. She had one obvious weakness: hardly any hands-on experience of down and dirty politics. On this front there are lessons to be learned from the past. Many successful business people over the years failed to ‘fit in’ by embracing the demands of a mainstream political party.

Wannabe politicos have also tried to cross over from journalism and academia. But all too often they suffered from the malaise of ‘knowing it all’. They may have done well in their previous lives but in the crosscurrents of unforgiving politics they were eventually washed away. It was too late when they had realised political nous requires a special touch and feel, best learned through hard graft and experience at the coalface.

This lack of realpolitik scuppered the Murphy campaign just as it should have been gathering pace. She played the immigration card; her facts were wrong. It was a stroke which backfired spectacularly. Then, instead of having the sense to wriggle her way out of a very tight corner, she snookered herself even more.

Matters reached their nadir when she set out her stall in a specially commissioned video. Released without the imprimatur of the party she was representing, it was dismissed by Varadkar as “kind of bizarre”. This was the point when the relationship between Fine Gael and its candidate mirrored the collapse of so many an internet-forged romantic union. Both sides realised they neither knew nor understood one another.

Ms Murphy, with the singular assurance of a high achiever, is used to getting her own way. And she obviously failed to take on board advice from wise old director of elections Charlie Flanagan. She was determined to do things as she saw fit.

Some in Fine Gael are seething about the loss of a seat they feel they could have won. They now regard their one-time dream candidate as more trouble than she is worth. A dogged individualism classifies her as not very clubbable. She may be incapable of change. But for her part, Ms Murphy will feel more should have been done to protect her from some baying wolves.

The infighting was a sombre backdrop for the Taoiseach and his by-election mid-winter blues. The combined results are a jolt to the confidence of his Government and we are reminded this Dáil is rounding the final bend for a run-in to the finishing line.

For a variety of reasons it is pointless reading too much into the public mood. All is still to play for between now and a general election. And a core reality remains: neither of the two main parties will have the numbers to form a government alone.

So what of the future and Ms Murphy’s ambition to cut a political swathe? Christina Patterson suggests that for relationships to survive there must be a kind of knowingness between both sides. That was certainly absent in the Wexford maelstrom. When it came to the trucker woman and Mr Varadkar, they really didn’t know one another at all.

Some in Fine Gael are seething about the loss of a seat they feel they could have won