| In Brussels, politicians haggled over top jobs this week, but in Dublin, nobody wants them. Irish politics has seen some high-profile and unforced resignations over the past months. Last week, the leader of the Green party and climate minister, Eamon Ryan, called it a day, citing the toll the job had taken and expressing a wish to focus on his family. In April, the country’s Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar stepped down. Varadkar, the country’s first openly gay and then youngest leader, was a trailblazer – but ultimately, the trail burnt him out. In his resignation speech, he acknowledged that he was “no longer the best person” for the job. Both men jumped – neither was pushed by political rivals. In fact, what happened next was even more striking. Ryan’s ambitious Deputy Leader, Catherine Martin, who challenged his position in a bruising 2020 internal contest, almost immediately ruled herself out as a replacement. When Varadkar resigned, almost all his senior party colleagues declined to step up – including his deputy leader, who had previously competed against Varadkar for the party leadership in 2017. This was not due to a lack of strong candidates – Varadkar’s party has been in power for more than a decade, and several of his colleagues have significant ministerial experience. In the end, only one politician – Simon Harris – put their name forward to take Varadkar’s place, and he was duly appointed party leader and Taoiseach. Think about that: The guy currently running Ireland got the job in large part because nobody else wanted it. There is no simple collective explanation for these decisions. | 