Did Michael Healy Rae call Leo Varadkar a “fairy” in the Dáil on Tuesday?
No, is the short answer to the question posed above. Though in fairness to Varadkar, it’s not especially hard to see why he took umbrage, either. Here’s the footage. Have a look at it, and we’ll walk through it below. The key moment comes at about 1.10 into the video:
The funny thing about this story is that if you read about it yesterday in the Irish Times, you wouldn’t even know what was said. Miriam Lord was obviously so affronted by Healy-Rae’s words that she felt compelled to write a 1000 word article on the subject without once mentioning the offending “airy fairies” phrase. And her conclusion was clear: Healy Rae should apologise.
Should he? Not for what he said, anyway, in my view. But watch the video above and it’s very hard for anybody to honestly believe that Varadkar’s offence was put on, or performative. Whatever the truth is, in that moment he certainly seems to believe that Healy Rae has just called him a “fairy” across the floor of the Dáil.
But that’s not what happened, and the context of Healy-Rae’s comments make that clear. His whole critique of Varadkar in that speech – and we make no comment here as to whether that critique is correct or incorrect – is that the Tánaiste is out of touch with ordinary people. That Healy Rae is plain spoken and ordinary, and that Varadkar is some sort of elitist snob who looks down on the parochial concerns of ordinary people.
The definition of “airy fairy” in most dictionaries backs this up. The Collins dictionary, for example, says:
If you describe someone’s ideas as airy-fairy, you are critical of them because you think the ideas are vague, impractical, and unrealistic.
“Off with you with the airy fairies and see how far ‘twill get you”, said Healy Rae. It’s an odd and unusual way of phrasing the accusation – not a first for a Healy Rae – but the definition of it is clear and unambiguous: “Off with you with the people with vague, unrealistic, and impractical ideas”.
It also fits in perfectly with the tone of what Healy Rae was saying: There was nothing in his preceding comments which brought sexuality into it, and a lot which suggested Varadkar is out of touch.
But of course, that may not have been what Varadkar heard. Is it really unimaginable that Varadkar – seated, remember, a good 40 feet away – might have heard “Off with you with the fairies”? In that case, his anger would have been very justifiable. Healy Rae should probably make clear exactly what he was saying.
Because there are those, of course, who will say that despite the evidence to the contrary, that there was something sinister happening here: They will say that Healy Rae is smart enough not to toss around a word like “airy fairy” while criticising a gay man, and that this was all some sort of dog-whistle designed for homophobic ears. That, again, seems implausible: Even if Healy Rae was that kind of character (and he is not) it is hardly the case that he relies for his election wins on some sort of secret bigoted vote. That assumption about him, and his voters, is objectively more bigoted than anything Healy Rae said.
It’s unfortunate, really, because the whole episode has overshadowed what was actually an instructive and useful shouting match, as these things go. There is no bigger dividing line in Irish politics than the question of who represents “the plain people of Ireland”. Many of them vote, of course, for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, but when it comes to questions like “what is a woman” or “must we reduce the size of the national herd”, or “do we need a referendum on the status of religionin the constitution” you’d be forgiven for suspecting that Healy Rae might be more in touch with common sentiment.
There’s no real way, at present, for that question to be answered.
And part of that is Healy Rae’s fault. For all his talk (most of which yours truly is a fan of) he seems very content to represent Kerry – and nowhere else.
What would happen if the “rural independents” as they call themselves actually organised into a political party and challenged Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael outside the cities? This writer suspects that they might do very well indeed on a national platform, but they seem to have no interest in trying.
And that’s where Varadkar’s point hits home: He, at least, is trying to represent the whole country, no matter how poorly we might judge that he does it. Healy Rae and friends represent their constituents well, but they do them a disservice too. People who agree with Healy Rae are effectively denied a chance to vote, nationally, for a party that can enter Government and change things. If Healy Rae and others feel that Varadkar is out of touch, then they should really be putting their money where their mouth is and offering the country a chance to prove them right.