The cracks are growing ever larger in Ireland’s once united front on Brexit. Now it’s a senior TD (MP) who has caused a major stir by dramatically breaking ranks with the cross-party line that everything Leo Varadkar does on Brexit is beyond reproach. Timmy Dooley, Communications Spokesman for Fianna Fáil, blasted Varadkar’s “failure to engage in basic diplomacy over the past 2 years” in a now-deleted tweet:

Fianna Fáil is committed to a confidence and supply agreement with the governing Fine Gael to “strengthen Ireland’s hand in negotiating a successful outcome to Brexit”, so this is unnerving from a party that hitherto at least publicly supports the Irish government’s stance. Dooley earned a public rebuke from his party leader Micheál Martin, while Fine Gael’s pugnacious keyboard-warrior-in-chief Neale Richmond has naturally been triggered, however the damage has already been done. The Irish political class is increasingly waking up to the fact that Varadkar waving a piece of paper saying “Olly Robbins signed this two years ago” is not a sustainable Brexit strategy…