Here are four lessons for Irish politics from the fall of Keir Starmer and the rise of Andy Burnham:

Not Peter Mandelson (though all politicians should certainly avoid him) but Peter’s Principle, the management concept which says everyone rises through an organisation to a level at which they are incompetent. Starmer was a perfectly decent director of public prosecutions, an able frontbencher on Brexit and a successful leader of the opposition – successful enough to win a massive landslide in the last general election. But – like his four immediate predecessors – he has been a failure as prime minister, as judged by the public and colleagues alike. People get promoted until they reach a job they can’t do.

Being prime minister (or taoiseach) is an extraordinarily difficult job requiring ability, temperament, judgment and conviction at levels beyond any ministerial job. As Fianna Fáil TDs contemplate life after Micheál Martin (the Examiner reported this week that the parliamentary party wants him to quit after the EU presidency, though we have heard the like of that before), they might pause to consider the requirements of the job.

The unhappy fate of Martin’s predecessor Brian Cowen should warn them that being a popular minister is not necessarily the recipe for being a successful taoiseach. As the candidates for the Fianna Fáil leadership begin to put up their flags in the coming months, TDs should consider themselves part of an interview panel for the hardest job in Ireland.

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