I was never subjected to violence ...but I was the boy with dark skin & funny name

Varadkar on struggles trying to fit in as child

- SYLVIA POWNALL

TANAISTE Leo Varadkar has opened up about his Indian heritage, admitting he was treated differently growing up as a person of color.

The Fine Gael leader said the white, Catholic Ireland of the 1980s made it difficult for the child of a multi-cultural family to fit in with his peers.

In RTE’s All Walks Of Life, Leo reveals: “I did grow up in what was a very white, mono-cultural Ireland. I was the guy with dark skin and the funny name.

“And even though I don’t think I was ever subjected to any kind of racial violence or anything like that, there is othering, of being a person of colour.

“It’s often just the little things like people asking you where you’re from.

“You’ll get asked, you know, do you ever go back to India.