There were no sharpened knives, no pale-faced politicians walking planks. Instead, both women stood down on their own terms, stressing now is the right time.

The four other sitting TDs — Holly Cairns, Gary Gannon, Jennifer Whitmore, and Cian O’Callaghan — stood on and watched from the back of the packed room in Buswells hotel, but refused to be drawn on whether they wanted to take over.

“Today is about Catherine and Róisín,” said Ms Cairns.

But politics moves fast, and only a few hours later, it was O’Callaghan who, in not ruling himself out of a leadership race, indicated he would be consulting with supporters in his constituency.

The TDs retired to the Dáil Bar last night after what was one of the most dramatic days in the party’s short history as a united group. But politics can be cut-throat and there is no certainty that the friendly relations witnessed yesterday will continue in the case of a leadership contest.

Of course, the prospect of another joint leadership has not been ruled out. Ms Shortall said it would be up to the party to decide what is the best approach.

However, she added that both women had found the joint leadership to be “very, very good”, especially given the time-consuming nature of setting up a new political party, with branches across the country.

“It worked very well, certainly, for the startup phase, so we’ll see what is decided over the coming days in relation to that,” she said.

But with just six TDs, another joint-leadership arrangement would mean the party would have two former leaders, two sitting leaders and an odd pair left out of the mix.

Having two at the top worked for the party, at least in the early days when they were setting up branches across the country, recruiting members, and identifying new candidates.

Worked well together

Despite different approaches, Shortall and Murphy always appeared to work well together.

They talk about the seven-year itch, but the political marriage between Shortall and Murphy managed to beat the stats — at least by a year.

Announcing they would both be stepping aside as joint party leaders to “hand over the reins to a new generation of Social Democrats”, they stressed that they had also “defied some of the pundits” (a number of whom, it was pointed out yesterday, were in the room) by trebling the number of TDs to six.

But it was clear that having a joint-leadership situation was never going to be a sustainable or long-term option.

In July 2021, a letter — which, in the end, was not sent — was leaked and circulated in the media, calling on the national executive of the Social Democrats to convene a leadership contest.

“We as public representatives and party members have been reflecting, and looking at what is ahead for the Social Democrats,” the letter read.

“We are a party of activists and campaigners and the pandemic has slowed us down in that regard.

“We are now ready to move forward again. And we are looking to what lays ahead. 

We strongly believe that the party is ready for a new phase of development and growth.”

The attempted coup was almost immediately halted when all of the party’s TDs came out in support of Ms Murphy and Ms Shortall.

Realistically, even if the letter had been sent, the move would never have succeeded due to article 7.4. of the Social Democrats constitution which states that “all candidates for leader must be members of Dáil Éireann, Seanad Éireann, or the European Parliament”.

Neither Murphy nor Shortall — despite their differences — were ever going to go up against each other, and for the four newbie TDs, a lack of experience in national politics prevented them from making moves.

But now more than halfway through their first Dáil term, those four TDs have gained experience both inside the Dáil chamber and in front of the media.

Perhaps both outgoing leaders were correct in stating that the time is now right to hand over power.

But who the party selects to take over the role will undoubtedly determine the future of the Social Democrats.