Gavan Reilly: Our State is in some state if Harris is thinking of quitting

One of the unspoken aspects of life in Leinster House is that you get abuse. It’s inevitable. Thankfully, it’s mostly at a low level, as a sort of background noise, but it’s there. It’s even true for those of us in the media, who are sometimes unfairly portrayed as cheering courtesans and thus ‘enabling’ whatever controversy that politicians have engineered.

But there are days when it’s tough to bear. No matter what your best intentions, sometimes controversy just finds a way in. There was one time last year, for example, where in a rushed moment on live TV I used a sequence of words that carries huge baggage for a small community in Ireland. They were upset; they spoke out; they rallied support. I had to stay off social media for a couple of days, which for me is a pretty big deal.

And that’s an example for someone in the media, whose decisions and actions have far less consequence than those who hold actual public office.

So I cannot imagine how tough it has been Simon Harris and his family in the last ten days, dealing with a threat to kidnap his children, and then a threat of extreme physical violence against a low-profile member of his family. Then, when the Tánaiste merely decided that he wouldn’t maintain the usual dignified silence, some indefensible arseholes organised a series of phone calls to Garda stations alleging a bomb at his home.

It was before these vile bomb threats that the Tánaiste suggested there was a loose campaign aimed at scaring him out of public office – and, notably, not following up with the usual declaration that ‘they will not succeed’.

That was a red flag to anyone reading the statement immediately. Inquiries to those around Harris on Saturday – was this just a drafting overnight? Or is there a reason he’s not being defiant in this? – went unanswered. Telling in its own right. And, again, that was before some indefensible idiots started ringing the Gardai with all sort of vexatious nonsense.

So off we went to Mullingar and the Fine Gael think-in to ask Harris himself. It’s understandable that the Tánaiste was reluctant to reduce it to a binary question. The trend is too serious to overlook, he said – but there was no denying the impact the last week has had on him.

“Leadership means showing up,” he says, haltingly. “I had to dig pretty deep to show up here today.” Given a second chance to clarify his stance, and to rule out the idea of quitting public life altogether, he didn’t do it.

Something I discovered in researching my book is that almost everyone in Leinster House is miserable because they have no power. Only ministers have the clout to make anything happen; everyone else is biding time hoping for their own chance.

No matter what you think about Simon Harris – and objectively there are plenty of things for which the Tánaiste warrants legitimate criticism – it should worry you that someone who has power, finds the gig so tough on their family that they’d contemplate walking away.