Leo should do the decent thing next St Patrick’s Day

UNDER the shadow of the Ukraine war and the evil hand of Putin, even the tawdry excesses of the St Patrick’s day festivities – I’m looking at you, Maura Higgins, pole-dancing in green lingerie for an advertisement – didn’t break my cringe-ometer this year.

Like a lot of people, I suspect, I felt a vague sense of pride as the green-lit display of our soft power and friendly influence coursed over the world’s landmarks on Thursday, capped by the traditional White House reception.

And I felt more than a twinge of sympathy for Taoiseach Micheál Martin, reduced to a videolink meeting with US president Joe Biden after a positive PCR test. Last year, the pandemic put the kibosh on his meeting with the US president; this year, Covid itself. Next year, Leo Varadkar will be Taoiseach, so the Fianna Fáil leader seems to have lost forever his chance to be the toast of Washington.

Our leaders play down the annual St Patrick’s Day exodus, but heading off to the four corners of the world must be a thrill amid the drudgery of everyday politics. What else, other than the overwhelming buzz of being in front of the world’s media, could explain Leo

Varadkar’s casual boast about how, as tourism minister, he gave Donald Trump a hand with his golf course in Doonbeg?

Mr Varadkar is practically a

White House veteran on St

Patrick’s Day, with three shamrock handover ceremonies under his belt, and he can look forward to more of them.

For that reason, he might consider honouring the true spirit of our patron saint’s day and inviting Micheál Martin to take his place next year in Washington.

It’s a big ask, strategically foolish, politically suicidal and utterly without precedent. It would also be a noble act of kindness in these strange and turbulent times.