The departure of Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach yesterday should really be marked by Irish nationalists with elaborate memorials and tributes in Dublin, on a par with those for the founders of the Irish state.

This smooth-talking politician achieved more in one dinner than so-called freedom fighters did over 20 years

Despite the ignominious manner of his departure, having been conclusively told where to go by a chunk of the Irish population in a recent referendum designed to change fundamental elements of the constitution, Varadkar achieved something which most Irish leaders desire deep down: he managed to stiff the Brits.

His star turn at a dinner in Brussels in 2018, when he told his fellow EU leaders of tales of bombed customs posts during the Troubles, is viewed by many as the moment European leaders internalised Irish concerns about the return of the so-called ‘hard border’ during the tortuous series of Brexit negotiations.

Aided and abetted eventually by a British prime minister in Boris Johnson who jettisoned the cause of unionism in the name of political expediency, Varadkar accelerated the process of the UK government effectively ceding profound elements of the sovereignty of Northern Ireland to the Republic almost effortlessly.

This smooth-talking politician achieved more in one dinner than so-called freedom fighters did over 20 years to shift the dial on Northern Ireland. The ramifications of this achievement are an unparalleled poisoning of the well of relations between parts of unionism and an Irish Taoiseach since the days of the rogue that was Charles Haughey.

Varadkar’s frequent pontification on the internal affairs of Northern Ireland – unchallenged by a series of pliant Northern Irish secretaries – and visits to Belfast like some touring satrap, naturally led to unionists describing Varadkar as a ‘venomous interloper.’

Many will suggest this is unionist sour grapes in response to an Irish politician who thoroughly outfoxed them and got their government to buy into his interpretation of events. Yet it must be recorded for posterity that Varadkar’s maximalist approach did little for good politics in Northern Ireland.

Away from Brexit and the border, Varadkar was never slow to rattle the cage of anti-British sentiment for narrow ends. Varadkar’s government is pursuing an inter-state case against the UK over its Troubles legacy legislation, with Varadkar claiming he was doing so because of ‘commitments to survivors in Northern Ireland and to the families of victims that we would stand by them.’

The hypocrisy, given the Irish state’s singular failure to examine or investigate its own role in providing support and a safe haven for the IRA, is obvious to anyone. Yet by dressing this up in the language of human rights Varadkar was yet again able to posture as the good guy versus the perfidious Brits.

Yet for all that, Varadkar and those around him in the Irish political establishment have failed to halt any sense of momentum around Sinn Fein.

Varadkar was very good for an anti-Shinner soundbite – he once told a Sinn Fein politician that ‘it does not take very long for your balaclava to slip’ – but his style of statecraft and rush to nudge the hydra of anti-British resentment has only emboldened the party.

Married to other elements of his domestic legacy – the hyper-liberal kulturkampf he has waged and failures around housing and immigration – Varadkar has aided and abetted those political forces which he was so publicly sniffy and condescending about.

As he no doubt takes to the global rubber chicken circuit – Varadkar is one of the most stereotypical of Davos Men after all – his rhetoric around progressive moderation fails to marry up with a legacy which put an emphasis on division, particularly in Northern Ireland.