On Wednesday, the Supreme Court and its carefully manufactured conservative majority will hear the first in a chain of cases that may well determine for the foreseeable future the survival of the system of checks and balances, and which also may well determine whether or not the presidency is turned into everything the founders were afraid it might.
Can the man who made history with the Dubs and saved Gaelic football prove a winner in the ballot box? We spoke to Philly McMahon, Colm Collins, Paul Curran and Tom Cribbin to find out what they think the former county manager would bring to Áras an Uachtaráin
In many ways, the race for the Áras is unique. Ordinarily, positions in public life are swayed by political expediency and partisanship, but the representative role of the presidency is less about the machinations of power and more about offering a relevant societal voice, reflecting our interests and identity. The office-holder is not burdened with concerns about the next general election, and ought therefore to have more of an eye for the next generation.
The US supreme court allowing the president effectively to abolish the Department of Education only reinforces this sense; Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent, explicitly wrote that the threat to our Constitution's separation of powers is grave.
