John Downing: Simon Harris will take the fight to Sinn Féin, but he’ll need luck on his side to keep Taoiseach’s job

Simon Harris with Kate O’Connell, who has spoken about his potential to be a ‘disrupter’, at Fine Gael’s ard fheis in Galway. Photo: Gerry Mooney

John Downing

Simon Harris already has the gratitude of a niche group of voters – the writers of pub quiz questions. Those pedants will in time delight in asking: Who was Ireland’s youngest taoiseach to date? Who was the shortest-serving? Who got most hits on TikTok?

No. That is not an attempt to write off our new Taoiseach even before he takes office today. It is simply an attempt to inject some realism to leaven all this huffery and puffery about “new energy”, “enthusiasm”, “action and vision” as the new Team Harris vows to “hit the ground running”.