Ah yes, a charming scenario!īut what if things don’t go to plan and Kenny (sometimes described as the poor man’s Haughey) crashes ignominiously to earth, undone by one of those awful snags that impede his way: Irish Water, the housing crisis, Loony Toon independents, strikes, industrial unrest, health, abortion, crime and an incompetent Justice Minister?Īnd who’ll replace him when the chimes at midnight ring out? Will it be Leo Varadkar, that quintessentially Dublin ‘chance-your-arm’ politico? Nope, Inda has already cast him into humiliating obscurity from which it will be hard to return.įrances Fitzgerald? Impossible. In other words it’s a cunning piece of politicking that will allow Kenny depart the political scene on his own terms, graciously pass on the baton to his chosen successor and head for the hills where he’ll enjoy a juicy retirement, adulation from his Indo/Sindo pals, directorships to beat the band and, as Macbeth said, have the freedom to enjoy that which should accompany old age as honour, love, obedience and troops of friends. Some argue that he deliberately cobbled together a ramshackle coalition on the basis that he’ll resign (reputation intact) before its inevitable collapse. So is he doomed as he starts out to govern with an ungovernable coalition? Perhaps, but here’s the interesting bit: his almost certain political demise may be self-induced. Words such as ‘lame duck,’ ‘also-ran,’ ‘dud,’ ‘washout’ and, ominously, ‘Dead Man Walking’! But a fancy Google app is not required to explain the meaning of the many other whisperings that are just as damning of his shambolic minority government. ‘LOSER’ is one of the words that Taoiseach Enda Kenny pretends not to hear as he pads along the luxurious €265,000 velvet carpet on his way to the Dáil chamber. Kenny’s ungovernable coalition is bound to be undone īy one of the many awful snags that impede his way

Lame duck crash