Sketch: Varadkar and Coveney head to the backbenches as Harris pledges continuity of service

Unfamiliar faces had gathered in the lobby of Leinster House by 9.30am awaiting the election of Simon Harris as the country’s youngest ever taoiseach. Family, friends, old allies.

Brendan Howlin was overheard remarking how it would be his ninth taoiseach - Charles J Haughey being his first in 1987.

At the plinth, the media had assembled. Down by the restaurant, members of Harris’s constituency team waited ahead of the Dáil speeches. In the chamber, Varadkar ...