In the end, what resonates is the unfulfilled potential of an era that promised so much.

Leo Varadkar came to power as the country was engulfed in a process of social change, propelled by grassroots activism and protests led mostly by LGBTQ people and straight women. This was an era of great empathy, of meitheal, one which gave people space to think and evolve, and to have sensitive and mature conversations.

Ireland was illuminated internationally, aglow in the positivity that there was hope for societies battered by crash, recession and austerity. We bucked trends, emerging from the brutality of a shattered economy with ground-up movements that fought and won, including the water charges movement. People became politicised. Hands reached across aisles. There was a sense that maybe we could do things differently after all.

And yet, while we were marching, the country was changing for the worse. The ways in which Fine Gael’s neoliberal policies undercut the desire for an equitable society – a society in which people can rely on a caring State and a helpful government, and basic things such as shelter are within reach – has caused huge damage. Varadkar presided over this. The social cohesion that was built by ordinary people participating in progressive change has taken a battering. Conditions were created – primarily the housing disaster – that fostered a festering resentment. Anger and disenchantment took hold,........

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