Even as a baby Micheál Martin was slow to climb to a higher level, preferring to remain horizontal in his cot long after his twin brother, Pádraig, had conquered the sitting position. “Apparently, it took me a long time to sit up in the cot. I always claim I was absorbing life,” says the politician. It took him a long time too to sit in the Taoiseach’s chair. Having languished for almost a decade as leader of the Opposition amid predictions that he might be the first Fianna Fáil leader never to become Taoiseach, he eventually landed the top job…