He puts success down to parents
Leo shares big day with mother and father whose ‘good standing got him elected’
LEO Varadkar’s proud parents stood beside him as he became Fine Gael’s new leader yesterday, in the knowledge that he has already put his political success down to their good standing in the community.
Ashok and Miriam Varadkar beamed with pride as their only son was hoisted up by his Fine Gael colleagues after been elected leader of the party.
They joined the scores of people eagerly anticipating the outcome of the leadership contest at the Mansion House, Dublin, yesterday afternoon – and stood at either side of their son as he was announced leader.
Mr Varadkar’s father, Ashok, is from Mumbai in India. And like his son, Ashok trained as a GP and he then set up a practice in Dublin.
His mother Miriam grew up on a farm in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, but after leaving school at 18, she went to Britain where she trained as a nurse. They met in the Seventies while working in a hospital in England.
‘My dad is from India originally, just south of Mumbai. He was probably one of the first in his family to go to university and to go to college,’ the new Fine Gael leader has previously said.
‘He went to England in the Seventies, emigrated there. He always tells us he arrived with £50 in his pocket, the shirt on his back and nothing else. He also had a qualification in medicine, which does help,’ he said.
The couple lived in India for a time before settling in Dublin where they had three children, Sonia, Sophie and Leo. Ashok ran his medical practice out of the family home in northwest Dublin, where Leo and his siblings shared their sitting room with their father’s patients.
‘It was the old-fashioned practice on Brompton Green and moved to Roselawn Road afterwards. The surgery was our garage, which was converted. Initially, at least for the first couple of years, the patients came to the front door. The sitting room was the waiting room,’ Mr Varadkar said.
‘So it was very much living over the shop. My mom being nurse, was practice manager, and she did pretty much everything other than seeing the patients. It really helped me get elected to the Dáil that my parents were so well-known and well-respected in the community.
‘Having a funny surname usually isn’t an advantage in Irish politics but it was for me.’
When he came out as gay on RTÉ radio two years ago, Leo’s parents were supportive but fearful he might be attacked. For his mother it was an issue of concern. ‘She had some gay friends when she was a nurse in England and she was afraid that I would get beaten up on the street, or concerned I would lose my seat or that people would use it against me in politics.
‘But that is a good start, because it was concern for me and nothing
‘She had gay friends and feared I’d get beaten up’
else. ‘My dad comes from an Indian background. India is still a very conservative society; the traditional family is everything, so it was a little bit difficult for him initially but it didn’t take long.
Last month both Miriam, Ashok and Leo’s sister Sonia enthused about Leo’s boyfriend of two years, Matt Barrett.
Mrs Varadkar described her son’s other half as ‘handsome and intelligent’, while Sonia said he was ‘beautiful, tall and friendly.’
‘Matt is part of the family,’ Miriam said.