How did you get to edit a book about Irish taoisigh? <\/p>\n
I started my original podcast with British prime ministers in 2021 because it was the 300th anniversary of Robert Walpole being our first prime minister. I commissioned 55 people to write essays on 55 prime ministers and then turned it into a book and then a podcast. So I then did American presidents, British kings and queens and dictators.<\/p>\n
I was watching a drama on Netflix about the Easter Rising, Rebellion<\/a>. I knew the basics but I really don\u2019t know any of the detail despite being an ultra-political geek and really interested in history. It\u2019s partly because we don\u2019t learn about Ireland in schools at all. Which is really weird, given the common history, language, culture, the Troubles as well, but the problem is, I think the whole British-Irish relationship, in my adult lifetime, has been dominated by that or was certainly in the \u201980s and \u201990s. So I started to read a lot more about Irish history so I thought of a podcast on Irish taoisigh.<\/p>\n I had a problem in that I really didn\u2019t know anyone in Irish media or politics. I read a biography of Leo Varadkar by Philip Ryan and Niall O\u2019Connor. So I rang them up and said, would you like to do the chapter on Leo? And can you recommend other people to do other chapters? They put me in touch with David McCullagh and it went from there. <\/p>\n We did the podcast, then I had lunch with a publisher called Swift Press to discuss a biography of Margaret Thatcher. And then I said, \u201cI don\u2019t suppose you\u2019d be interested in doing one on Irish prime ministers?\u201d It\u2019s taken a bit longer than I\u2019d intended because when you\u2019ve got multiple authors, and this is not meant to criticise anybody, it\u2019s like herding cats. <\/p>\n What\u2019s your abiding feeling about the calibre of taoisigh? <\/p>\n I think, generally, they reflect the times that they lived in, and I think we get the political leaders we deserve. There are more impressive ones and then there are some less impressive ones. I think John Bruton was one of the less impressive ones, John A Costello too, but then he had to be dragged in to do the job. Enda Kenny – he\u2019s really impressed me because I\u2019ve had quite an extensive email exchange with him. He was somebody who, I think, probably is a bit underrated. I think history will probably look more kindly on him, a bit like John Major, in a way. I met Miche\u00e1l Martin purely coincidentally in Leinster House, and I thought he seemed to be a very nice person. <\/p>\n Certainly for the older ones, de Valera just dominates everything. Se\u00e1n Lemass is a really interesting character. He laid the groundwork for what happened 20 years later.<\/p>\n Which projects are you working on? <\/p>\n I just finished my autobiography. I\u2019m also working on an anthology of political diaries. I do a politics-meet-history podcast, which takes up a lot of time. <\/p>\n Have you made a literary pilgrimage? <\/p>\n I\u2019m a huge fan of Richard Nixon\u2019s books. He was a brilliant writer. I recommend him to anybody who wants to understand what the core of politics is all about. I went to the Richard Nixon Library just outside Los Angeles and California in 1993. He hadn\u2019t been dead that long. His grave is actually at the side of the library. <\/p>\n