Things are getting curious and curiouser.

Lewis Carroll would be proud of Dr Leo Varadkar.  The best way to understand this country is to use a looking glass.  When this week Brendan Howlin stepped into the debate about when the new president would be inaugurated, I thought it strange.  We have a presidential commission, we can inaugurate a president on the day or as close as possible to November 11^th. That could have allowed our president to attend centenary events to mark the end of WW1 as acting President and come home to be inaugurated on November 12^th.

But November 12^th was already in the diary for Donald Trump. So we’ll get the president inaugurated in the wee small hours of November 11^th rushed off to Flanders Fields and home to tug at the forelock of one of the world’s great misogynists, bigots and liars.

Exactly a week ago, social media was wall to wall with FG supporters clapping Dr Varadkar on the back as to how well he’d done by putting the pope in his box over historic child abuse cases in Ireland. The Donald well be a much bigger fish to fry.

The real measure of Leo’s thoroughly modern Ireland will be if he has the political guts to tell Trump as he once promised what’s what in an international context. But nobody is holding their breathe on this one.

Because at the back of it we all know that Dr Varadkar is the luckiest of our Taoisigh ever. He has the EU negotiating for him, he has a divided opposition and thinks he is popular. How anyone could get to be Taoiseach without serving in an economic ministry is unusual. Sure what could possibly go wrong?

His problem might be that when luck runs out as it eventually must, it runs out like a light and is gone before you know it. There will be demonstrations and it will negatively impact on Varadkar’s popularity. And all the blarney and ballyhoo won’t hide it this time.

It never does, not even in wonderland.

All over the place when it comes to a Trump visit

Let’s start with a quote from 2017 after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the USA. Who said “I will have no truck with that. I have a track record on all of those matters and we will stand firmly by that, that’s our position.” Well the answer is the same person who today said the following when Dr Varadkar repeated an invite to the Donald to visit Ireland; “On the issue of the President of the United States coming to Ireland that in the first instance is a call for the Taoiseach and for the diplomatic services but again where America can bring something positive to bear and make a positive contribution to our process I think we should always be open to that,”

Give up? Wait for it, the answer is Mary Lou McDonald! Seems the Donald is now the man to shoe horn Mary Lou back into power in Stormont. So the end justifies the means when it comes to Sinn Fein. This will come at a cost. You can’t criticise a world leader in one breadth and in another tug his forelock to solve a local difficulty in Stormont.

SF have made strongly the point that they can’t agree a power sharing executive with the DUP as Arlene Foster will not support marriage equality in the north. However Donald Trump’s record on LGBT issues make the DUP sound like raving liberals by comparison, He has banned gays from serving in the US military, fails to accept LGBT month while 9 months ago 6 members of his own advisory committee on HIV/AIDS walked citing harm that Trumps policy was causing.

Another question, Which minister said to RTE 13 months ago;  ‘I wouldn’t [invite Trump]. I’m not sure what purpose it would serve.” ? Probably the same guy who turned up in Washington today congratulating Trump for adopting Ireland’s tax strategy and waffling on about auld decency of good manners to return an invite to visit one’s home.

That’s an easy one. It’s Dr Varadkar our Taoiseach. Dr Varadkar is a very considered person. He leaves nothing to chance so he can’t hide behind the fools pardon that SF supporters will no doubt excuse Mary Lou McDonald’s new found interest in the Donald.

There is a certain element in SF that are attracted to Trump in the same way as they respect Putin and the hard populism of other nationalists.  But Dr Varadkar hoping on to his coat tails? This will come unstuck, The prospect of a Trump visit will see protests on the street that will make the reception for Ronald Reagan look like a Bord Failte ad.

Two years ago there was a dry run when Michael Noonan greeted Trump in Shannon, it raised eyebrows.  Last year Enda Kenny’s skilful speech that subtly deconstructed Trump’s attitude to immigrants rightly received worldwide praise and went viral.  Who exactly is Dr Varadkar trying to impress with this invite?

Trump’s fellow populist travellers have contempt for Varadkar over Brexit and his support for the EU.  Like with Mary Lou, Varadkar’s invite to his BFF will come at a cost too.

Question is, who will pay for it?