Pat Rabbitte: Martin has shown resilience in this crisis without a roadmap

Micheál Martin has endured a true annus horribilis, but he has held firm through the rapidly shifting, unpredictable circumstances of his time in office

Since the day that he assumed the office of Taoiseach, Micheál Martin has found it impossible to wriggle out of the straitjacket of the pandemic. Picture: Julien Behal

I entered Dáil Éireann on the same day in 1989 as Taoiseach Micheál Martin, but I don’t know him well. I suspect, though, that I know him no less well than many in his own parliamentary party. Enda Kenny once perceptively remarked that Bertie Ahern was “a social loner”. No similarly apt summary occurs for Martin, but “social” wouldn’t be prominent.

The Taoiseach has endured a truly annus horribilis. The year started in the slough ...