Ciara Kelly: I thought of quitting my job, just as Ryan and Varadkar have — I wanted so badly to make the social media trolling stop

"Leo reached a point where no matter what he did, he was torn asunder online." Photo: Gerry Mooney

Ciara Kelly

If you were a betting man (or woman) back in 2020, you’d likely have said of the three Government party leaders, it’d be Micheál Martin who’d topple first, with rumblings in FF and his then moniker of the only leader of FF never to become Taoiseach. That no longer applies; he’s grown in popularity since and is now the last man standing of the three.

Neither Leo Varadkar nor Eamon Ryan were tipped to go; neither were pushed. Ryan survived a particularly vicious heave against him in 2020 from some Catherine Martin supporters within his party, and I don’t think many blame the Green Party’s disastrous election results on him — the Greens tend to wax and wane in popularity depending on circumstance.