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— PERHAPS KEEN TO head off any criticism, Leo Varadkar offered his own commentary on his decision to milk the ‘Justin Trudeau Likes Novelty Socks’ meme, as he ended his press conference with the Canadian leader earlier today.
The new Taoiseach chose to gift a pair of distinctive socks to his guest, and sport his own Canada-themed pair.
Varadkar can be assured of a raft of international headlines, as a result.
He’ll no doubt be hoping that some of those pieces make mention of more serious issues – like Brexit. But, either way, he’ll be more than happy to be associated with Trudeau, who has become something of an international political celebrity and a centrist counterpoint to his neighbour, Donald Trump, in recent months.
Varadkar sought to align himself with the likes of Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron as he ran for the leadership of Fine Gael earlier this summer – and pronounced, upon his election as Taoiseach last month, that he would lead a government neither of left or right “but of the new European centre”.
In the wake of all that, the timing of this week’s visit – the first by a foreign leader, since Varadkar took office – will be particularly welcomed by both the Taoiseach and his advisors.
No surprise then that the government made sure to pull out all the stops to make sure Trudeau and his family got a proper Irish welcome (and multiple opportunities to face the cameras, alongside his host).
Up early
Canadian Ambassador Kevin Vickers was amongst the welcoming party last night as Trudeau touched down at Dublin Airport with his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and their young son Hadrien.
A busy schedule of carefully-choreographed events was arranged for today.
Members of the media who wanted to photograph or film the leaders’ early morning meet-and-greet at Farmleigh, in the Phoenix Park, were asked to present themselves to board a bus from the city before 7am.
This, of course, being far too early for TheJournal.ie, we boarded a later one, to catch the mid-morning press conference.
Elephant in the room?
Trudeau is stopping off in Ireland on his way to the G20 summit in Germany later in the week – where he’ll meet face-to-face yet again with Donald Trump.
The US President wasn’t mentioned by name by either of two leaders today – but both appeared keen to underscore their differences with him, as they spoke to reporters, by talking up their inclusive worldviews.
They espoused the benefits of migration, for instance, and how countries do best when they are open to the world – again, in contrast to Trump. (The expression ‘elephant in the room’, often used in these scenarios, is perhaps less than fitting here: the press conference was held outdoors, for starters – and, this being the Phoenix Park, there were actual elephants in the vicinity, if not within view).
There was discussion of the close links between the two countries, at their early morning meeting, they said – making the obligatory kind of opening remarks you expect at this sort of thing.
Gender balance in government had also come up at their private meeting, they said. The two leaders also talked at length about Brexit and the CETA trade deal between Canada and the EU.
Managing to allude to Brexit and Trump, but without specifically mentioning either, Varadkar observed at the start of their Q&A that Ireland and Canada both share relationships with neighbouring countries which have “decided to go a different direction”.
Trudeau gave answers to most questions in both French and English – joking, at one point, that it gave him two chances to get the answer wrong.
By contrast Varadkar – who, in fairness, has admitted he’s still working on his Irish language skills – stuck to a prepared script to answer his sole question As Gaeilge.
The Taoiseach looked far more relaxed handing over his gifts to his VIP guest, as the press conference ended.
And though the assembled press may have thought we’d reached peak ‘Irish welcome’ with the presentation of the green socks and rugby jersey, there was more to come still.
Around the back of the building, some guests from the GAA were waiting to school the Canadian premier in the finer points of hurling. As they chatted someone emerged onto the grass with a pair of embossed bodhráns, which the two men duly brandished.
Not impressed
Trudeau, as planned, stopped by to meet President Higgins and sign the Áras guestbook this afternoon. He’ll join the Taoiseach again, alongside other guests, for a dinner later tonight.
Meanwhile, Varadkar has been back to the grind of the Dáil for his latest outing in Leaders’ Questions, where Mary Lou McDonald took the opportunity to give out to him for his international showboating.
Hard-pressed families, the Sinn Féin TD insisted, “have no interest in your choice of socks”.
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So Minister Naughten if some one is attempting to take their own life every 9 minutes what exactly are you and your government doing about it?
@Kerry Blake: Nothing. Pieta House are doing all the work. And admirably so. TFF Pieta House
Being poor in the countryside is far worse pressure than being in towns and cities where you usually live along with poor peers & so have less stress trying to pretend your coping & in the countryside u have to pay school “voluntry” contributions etc as to not embarrass your kids and yourself among your better off neighbours & thus doing without proper food & clothes for a while. Plus the poor urban school would also have “disavantaged” gov status & more gov funding. Snobby society needs to stop putting so much pressure on everyone to be perfect in every aspect of life. Exams, relationships, housing, careers & car types etc. If people are allowed live their life in their way u will see a huge suicide reduction.
@abcyz: sadly much of this pressure is self inflicted
@George Beckett: No it is snobby peer pressure pure and simple. Snobby people judging and blaming their poorer less well off neighbours
@Kerry Blake: Nothing Kerry they are too busy holding meetings about the dress code and prayers in the Dail …anything other than what they are paid to do.
@abcyz: you are right with that too. I guess we have to control the controllables and ignore them. Easier said than done however.
@Kerry Blake: They’re closing down beds for child mental health. That’s the government’s response to this epidemic. If Leo becomes taoiseach, we can only expect it to get much worse
@Kerry Blake: raise more taxes make life more unbearable make more unreachable deadlines out the blue for people to despair over take their homes sell to vulture funds leave the unemployed with no way out make the working poor skint so they can either eat or pay some bills not all because is unattainable. Cause more despair isn’t that what ALL plastic Tory governments do.
Ah yeah and help the rich who have no real worries three meals a day and credit and a brand new car to look good in their business exploiting the poor so that the so call recovery seem to be real .
@George Beckett: no it is not self inflicted to fear the bills on the post that you cannot make it and the deadlines you cannot afford is not self inflicted
Massive issue with suicide in Ireland? Solution- close off 50% of the beds and don’t recruit psychiatric nursing positions for adolescent mental health services. Very fcuking Irish that is
Maybe the minister would look at funding the systems that help his faux cause. This is a serious matter, one that all of us folk have been living ( we’ve nearly all seen a suicide). We don’t need a minister to reiterate what we have been through. We need a minister that will be able to offer hope, a future, a reason.
Everyone listen rte radio 1 now for Leo and Simon debates
And FG’s policies are behind many of those suicides. They couldn’t care less about ordinary people who have been thrown under a bus to protect wealthy & influential people who are their friends / associates & backers.
@Setrakian: absolutely. I’ve seen many friends loosing everything I seen people all ages worry about everyday I live in fear myself is all Bills and worry . Any simple thing become a massive problem like fix the car to nct if it doesn’t pass you stress extremely as neither you could afford this extra bill and now you didn’t pay your mortgage and there is other three bills coming and if you get stopped they take your car and you can’t afford another and without it you can’t work and you will lose your home for not paying by then you can’t afford food put the money into parts in between getting it fixed you worry about getting it taken away by police . Rich people hasn’t a clue what that is like . That’s just an example I seen happen 3 people this year
Self harm and completed suicide are two completely different things. The minister is demonstrating the irresponsibility he espouses to avoid.
@Ian Moloney: Self harm is a cry for help. Suicide is someone who is beyond all reasoning with…..
@Kerry Blake: only in a few cases. If help is available people can change their mind.
The important message here is if you are reading this message and feeling suicidal please seek help.
There is always light at the end of the tunnel. Google how did it feel to commit suicide on Internet forums and you will see how thankful those people are that they failed.
There is no shame in seeking help.
It rips families apart, with knock on effects on the following generation. I know from experience sadly.
That is an incredibly high number. Quite shocking. How are these statistic gathered? If accurate this is actually the greatest crisis the country is facing.
That’s right minister, our suicide rates (especially among young people) are among the highest in Europe. Never mind reporting, what is YOUR government going to do about it? Not enough Jigsaw type projects. No funding to implement whole school approaches to youth mental health and suicide prevention in schools. Disgraceful lack of Children & Adolescent Mental Health services and beds. That is YOUR responsibility. Saying you can’t recruit staff without paying them more is not good enough.
Do your job and ensure that our children and young people have the services they need to support their mental health and help them when they are suffering from mental health difficulties. It is a national tragedy and shameful that are statistics are so appalling. You must do whatever it takes to change it.
Can we please stop using the term ‘committed suicide’…it is no longer a crime in this country, thankfully…we seem to be so caught up on being PC about everything except this…when in fact it is quite important to families…
Mr Naughten seems more concerned with the perception of information around the issues, than the addressing of the issues themselves. Just another talking head political prop, suggesting the blame for uploaded material is with the chosen platform, not the uploader & the particular incident he referred to can hardly be said to be that. Dail privilege will still be applicable though so the only concerns there are with “fake news” is from the media sources that propagate it
Cant comment on seanie. Comment on next one up. How can i also get a slice of the taxpayer cake.
Who owns this wknr ok a news site
Defence Forces have a known suicide problem since an “independent third party” study in 2005 showed a higher than expected suicide rate. So the military authorities are aware of the problem as is the Department of Defence.
So imagine the surprise when, in a response to a Parliamentary Question by Aengus O Snodaigh, the Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe admitted the Defence Forces DON’T BOTHER keeping suicide statistics.
So much more needs to be done honestly it goes so much deeper than organisations as someone who suffered from suicidal ideation a lot we need to provide people with the tools of self awareness
Talk therapy , meditation reiki get successful survivors involved who have made their way out of it. I don’t see a lot to praise with current system I’m sorry to say.
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