Paschal Donohoe’s Political Survival Guide

Cautious to a Fault, Vital to the Vault.

Paschal Donohoe is the kind of man who double-checks whether the iron’s unplugged before boarding the plane to an IMF meeting or a Eurozone meeting, or some international finance-related meeting. Cautious, deliberate, and almost absurdly unflappable, he built a political career in Ireland by sidestepping the drama that usually fells most politicians.

His political base was in Dublin Central, a constituency he courted with the relentless patience of a monk illuminating a manuscript. A politically dangerous terrain that likes to eat politicians for breakfast. Donohoe first tried for the Dáil in 2002 and again in 2007, losing both times. Most people would’ve packed up their manifestos and gone home, but Paschal was a councillor by 2004 and then, in 2007, a Senator. Four years later, persistence finally beat probability: he was elected to the Dáil in 2011, just in time to see the Irish economy still smoking from the crash.

By 2014, he was in Cabinet, handling Transport and Tourism, where he displayed his first major skill: not setting anything on fire. During strikes at Irish Rail, Luas, and Dublin Bus, he managed to broker deals that didn’t involve barricades or burning effigies. For Irish politics, that counts as statesmanship. But eaten bread is soon forgotten. Dublin Central was cut from four seats to three, a moment of pure democratic terror for Donohoe. He scraped through. For this feat of survival, he was rewarded with a promotion to Minister for Public Expenditure, a job that involves telling everyone else they can’t have any more money.