A Singular Dubliner

Proust questionnaire with Ireland's historic Prime Minister

- Mayank Austen Soofi

Camden Street's Devitts pub is buzzy with evening loungers. Suddenly, the low chattering turns into a murmur and, one by one, all the heads turn towards the main door. Ireland's former Prime Minister has just entered. Then in his late 30s, Leo Varadkar made history by becoming the country's first prime minister of Indian origin. He was also the country's first openly gay person to attain this position. And the youngest to hold the high office at the time.

The friendly waitress promptly serves the beer the former PM asks for, simultaneously handing him a bill of eight euros. Ensconced in a corner table, Leo Varadkar agrees to become a part of our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make "Parisian parlour confessions", all to explore our distinct experiences. His responses form the concluding bookend to our week of Dublin dispatches. This reporter has been in Ireland's capital attending Bloomsday, the annual festival that celebrates Ulysses, James Joyce's great Dublin novel. Leo Varadkar casually remarks that he possesses the book's first UK edition. He is in fact looking forward to the September release of his own book—Speaking My Mind.

What is your present state of mind?