Varadkar justifies his elevation by delivering on leadership potential

The Roman historian and philosopher Tacitus came up with a cruel summation on the life of the Emperor Galba – one that might be equally relevant to a more recent leader of our own. “Omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset” translates as: “Would have been thought by all to have been capable of ruling, had he never ruled.”

It was RTE’s former political correspondent, David Davin-Power, who I first head evoking this fantastic epitaph – and who was he describing? Poor Brian Cowen no less.

God, whey political correspondents (including this one) look through the stuff they wrote about Cowen a decade ago, as it became obvious he was about to succeed Bertie Ahern, the ‘cringe’ is just mortifying.

Cowen was the dauphin, the chosen one, and lauded by just everybody.

But it never worked out for him as Taoiseach.

The timing was just awful for him, of course. He was elevated when the economy was already dipping but at that stage, the seriousness of it was not really known.

His problems were compounded by his own limitations. Technically, he did all the right things including introducing very painful – but arguably necessary – austerity measures and some savage cuts.

But in terms of temperament he was not suitable for the job. It required an abundance of energy (especially in a media age), that he did not have. And it required him to be always ‘on’ and ready, which he wasn’t.

And he was just too stubborn or too awkward to go out to the people and sell all the tough messages. He did it, but it was infrequent and occasional and kind of haphazard. The impression went abroad that he and the government were flailing – and that all came to roost in late 2010, when events caught up.

There was the unfortunate Morning Ireland interview from the party’s think-in in the Ardilaun Hotel that September, where Cowen sounded like he had had a very late night. Then when the arrival of the Troika was imminent, Cowen like St Peter denied the obvious in a series of embarrassing stand-up interviews.

For more, read  this week’s Connacht Tribune.