So, Ireland now has a publicly gay cabinet minister. Granted, it may be an important milestone but let's not dwell on that, Leo Varadkar said it to get it out there and move on, so let's do that. Instead let's talk about the real take-away from Sunday morning's interview with Miriam O'Callaghan.
The Dáil defeated the House of Commons in a rugby match two years ago. Let the magnitude of that sink in for a minute. We're currently rushing a script through production in time for next years Oscar season. 'The triumphant tale of one State's symbolic victory over another', it's a shoe-in.
Much like Varadkar's sexuality, the existence of Dáil sports teams is no secret, to those in the know at least. A story went around a couple of years ago regarding Colm Keaveney's less than glowing recommendation about Senator Lorraine Higgins. According to Keaveney, Higgins' most telling contribution to public life was landing a place on the Oireachtas golf society.
So it's not a clandestine life, although you do wonder where the paparazzi are at these times. Nevertheless, there's some pride to be had in the fact that our dears leaders are better at rugby than the auld enemy's.
Following a discussion about his waining days as a practicing doctor, the Minister for Health spoke about the historic moment:
I do miss it the odd time. I remember playing a rugby match two years ago, it was us playing the House of Commons, the Dáil was playing the House of Commons, and we won by the way. It was a really mucky day and there were a couple of injuries and I had to take the second half off to play doctor.
