Varadkar, Murphy dominate last-day headlines

It’s kind of fitting the two politicians dominating the headlines on the final day of the Dáil are the pair who - for different reasons - were the most prominent of all during the year.

The newish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, made the cover of the European edition of Time this week and also took time to launch an eviscerating attack on Murphy in the Dáil, shoving him off his pedestal as the martyr-in-chief of the Jobstown protesters.

It made for the flintiest and harshest exchanges we have seen in the Dáíl for some time.

Murphy’s claim of perjury by gardai has been referred by Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges (a kind of GSOC for politicians), while Murphy himself has complained to Ó Fearghaíl he was defamed by Varadkar’s and colleagues’ description of him as a bully-boy.

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Fianna Fáil, Labour and others all got involved in the verbal shemozzle. Here is Sarah Bardon's report on it, which is today's lead.

And if you missed it, here is Miriam Lord's unerring and courageous piece on it, which is required reading IMHO.

The reasons for Varadkar’s attack are obvious. He made a strategic blunder last week in honing in on one aspect of the case that played into the Solidarity-PBP agenda. That really riled a lot of his backbenchers. So this week was an act of correction, or overcompensation as it turned out to be.

It would have been a travesty if Murphy or any of his comrades had been convicted, given how grossly inappropriate the charges were to what happened.

But that does not excuse the vile behaviour and bullying tactics that were used on the day.

Murphy’s portrayal of himself as a victim and the wronged one is a bit hard to take.