Will Harris turn out to be a saint or sinner in the eyes of unionism?

BACK in January in an interview in the Irish Times the loyalist activist Jamie Bryson was highly critical of what he described as the “hostile and aggressive Irish Government” led by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney.

Bryson waxed lyrical about how unionism and loyalism previously had a “fantastic relationship” with the Irish Government.

And with former president Mary Mcaleese and her husband Martin, as well as with former Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Somewhat surprisingly even the leader of the avowedly republican party, Fianna Fail, Micheal Martin, was included in his warm words. However, Varadkar was out in the cold, the bogey man who had, according to Bryson, “undermined that rapprochement”.

On Wednesday after learning of his resignation as Taoiseach, the TUV leader Jim Allister also left little doubt as to his views on the outgoing Fine Gael leader when he described him as “a venomous interloper”.

Many nationalists thought Varadkar the best leader of an Irish Government in decades. That, at last, they had a Taoiseach who was not a doormat when it came to representing their concerns when dealing with either the Tories or unionism.

Of course it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the catalyst for these two very differing viewpoints can be traced back to one seminal event, Brexit.

There is a general consensus that Anglo-irish relations were poisoned after 2016 by London’s attempts to get out of the European Union with a sweetheart exit package. Quite a few senior Tories, including lead negotiator, Lord David Frost, believed they could retain many of the key benefits of membership. Indeed, many in London were seemingly taken by surprise when it was made clear that Varadkar and then Irish Foreign Minister, Coveney were not for siding with them in the battle with EU.

The Irish duo had done their homework and figured Ireland’s best interests very much lay with Brussels, not with London. So they made the pragmatic decision, they were going to stay safe and warm within the EU tent.

In the turmoil that followed Varadkar and Coveney popped up regularly on all the main political programmes in Britain. For many, particularly in unionist circles here, they were seen as the enemy, the public face of the big bad EU trying to dislodge NI from the UK.

Unlike many of their British counterparts, who were often all over the place in terms of negotiation positions and tactics, they had formed an intelligent strategy in regard to what they did, and did not, want and also a clear strategy how to get achieve it. Recent history tells us, they succeeded.

Varadkar’s legacy is a mass of contradictions in that traditionally Fine Gael was seen as a west Brit party, a kind of unionistlite cohort south of the border. Irish unity was never part of its DNA. It was also seen as socially and religiously conservative. So, what no one saw coming was how a mixed race, gay man would get the top job in the party and would talk about wanting to see Irish unity in his lifetime.

This was very different, and if nothing else it showed the world the old monocultural Catholic Ireland was well and truly gone. So, now a very different Taoiseach, Simon Harris comes centre stage.

He’s got a zero track record in regard to Northern Ireland. In fact, I don’t think I have ever heard a single statement on it from him. Whether this proves to be a good thing or a bad thing only time will

tell.

GONE Leo Varadkar