Keir Starmer: Has Ireland lost a friend with the departure of Starmer from No 10?

On 21 July 2024, the sun was blazing down on Chequers, the British prime minister's countryside residence. In the Hawtrey Room, two newly-crowned prime ministers - Sir Keir Starmer and Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Simon Harris - were laughing. Surrounded by their closest advisers, which included chief of staff Sue Gray and cabinet secretary Simon Case on the UK side, Starmer told Harris a story about getting a Donegal jersey while on his honeymoon in Ireland. He said he still wears the jersey while playing five-a-side football. Luckily for Starmer, Harris furnished a brand new Donegal jersey as a ceremonial gift for the prime minister. It did not go unnoticed that the meeting in Chequers was the first official hosting of an international leader there under Starmer's premiership - and Ireland was chosen as the guest. The two men agreed to set up the annual British-Irish summit, the most recent of which took place in Cork last March. They pledged a "reset" in the British-Irish relationship, which had basically collapsed during Brexit. While Rishi Sunak made some attempts to rekindle it, he came under too much domestic pressure and Labour wanted to rebuild ties with EU member stat