Senator Tom Morrissey and Fiona O’Malley have both put their names into the hat to become the future leader of the Progressive Democrat party. This is indeed the poison chalice in Irish politics right now. Without wishing to state the blindingly obvious, a party with two elected TDs will need a major re-write of their script in order to appeal to the electorate again. However, if either Tom Morrissey or Fiona O’Malley were to be elected, then it would represent a new era in the history of the PD party. Neither politician is well-known nationally, so presumably they won’t come with too much baggage. That is the upside for them. The downside is, of course, that neither is well-known and so will struggle to make an impact. They will effectively be trying to make an impact from a standing start. The real danger for whoever gets the gig is that they might become the person that led the PDs into extinction. Not a good one to have on your CV.