It is not just Government coalitions which are under the political microscope these days.
Since the General Election in 2024, Ireland's left-leaning opposition parties have increasingly worked together as part of an alternative platform to the existing Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Independents Government.
Supporters of that still informal arrangement insist it has directly contributed to a clear Dáil opposition voice, the landslide victory of Catherine Connolly in last autumn's presidential elections, and a firming up of the long-held strategy to "vote left, transfer left".
Surely, the argument goes, such a tight drum circle of unity and togetherness mean future successes for all involved are just around the corner?
Perhaps, perhaps not.
The world, of course, is never quite that simple, with politics being, if nothing else, deeply pragmatic when it comes to protecting your own patch and ensuring whatever mutually beneficial agreements are in place benefit you more than your mutuals when it comes to the final result itself.
Continuing to ensure you have an individual identity is always key to producing that outcome, and protecting your base, meaning this weekend's Social Democrats annual conference is as much about making sure the party dances to the beat of its own drum than becomes a mere backing dancer for a larger party's potential future victory song.
Social Democrats focus
The Social Democrats are certainly upbeat about their current chances in that regard, and there are reasons for such an outlook.
Three separate opinion polls in the past fortnight have suggested the party is now fourth largest in terms of support in the country, with this week's Irish Times-Behaviour & Attitudes poll (7%, up two points), last weekend's Sunday Independent-Ireland Thinks poll (10%, unchanged) and last month's Business Post/Red C poll (10%, up two) all, usual poll health warnings aside, indicating the party is in a solid position.
It is also now just over a year since Holly Cairns' TDs increased from five to 11 in the general election and, despite one of those new TDs, Eoin Hayes, almost immediately being embroiled in controversy, others such as Aidan Farrelly, Rory Hearne and Sinéad Gibney are influencing Leinster House debate.
And while there is clear competition for the opposition spotlight, both directly with Sinn Féin, Labour and People Before Profit-Solidarity, and indirectly with the Greens, Aontú and Independents, the Social Democrats are managing to fight their corner by, it believes, focusing on what a number of TDs have told RTÉ News are "bread and butter" issues.
Among those likely to gain attention this weekend will be housing policy, with party members saying in the lead-up to the conference that its recent positions on the upcoming rent reforms, monthly homelessness figures, and a policy suggestion for a new State Construction Company, while having similarities with other parties, have helped to put the Social Democrats' stamp on the debate.
That stamp, they believe, is also being placed on cost of living discussions, with one party TD saying there is a concerted effort to zone in on energy bills, grocery costs and other household expenses, a position that TD quickly added is about reflecting the views of voters rather than a deliberate strategy to target a Government weak point to its own benefit.
With perhaps one eye on a potential gap in the market due to the reduction in Green Party seats, climate action is also an issue of significant Social Democrats' focus, no more so than in recent weeks due to the damage, both physical and emotional, caused by Storm Chandra.
Internationally, the party is attempting to make its voice heard too, with strongly held views on Gaza, the Triple Lock, US President Donald Trump, and other matters all being raised over the past year.
Given the importance of those positions to the Social Democrats' political positioning, it will surprise no one that they will be prominent in debates this weekend, with housing and climate up for discussion this afternoon and the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, giving an address to the party yesterday.
The question, though, is whether all of this is leading to what the Social Democrats hope will be a "seismic shift in Irish politics"?
Well, funnily enough, that specific question will also be debated at this weekend's conference during a session chaired by TD Gary Gannon. Presumably, the party won't say "no".
Upcoming elections
Whatever about the perhaps predictable answer of party members to that question this weekend, the public will have their first real chance to give their answer in a few weeks' time.
It is widely expected the Galway West and Dublin Central by-elections to find Dáil successors to now-President Catherine Connolly and now World Bank official Paschal Donohoe will take place on 22 May.
Like other parties, the Social Democrats is talking a big game coming into those campaigns, making it a racing certainty their candidates Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich and Daniel Ennis will be prominent throughout this weekend's annual conference.
As a native Irish speaker from the Gaeltacht, who has recently worked as Dublin-Rathdown TD Sinéad Gibney's parliamentary assistant, and a local councillor who is embedded into the area he wants to represent, both candidates' pitches will not come as too much of a surprise.
But whether they work or not in crowded fields where arguably more than just two seats are at stake is less predictable.
In Galway West, Ms Nic Fhionnlaoich will face competition from Catherine Connolly presidential campaign manager Sheila Garrity, Independent Ireland's former Fianna Fáil councillor Noel Thomas, Conamara-based Independent councillor Tom Welby, Labour councillor Helen Ogbu, Green Party councillor Niall Murphy and Aontú's Órla Nugent, among others.
And that's without factoring in the still to be confirmed Sinn Féin candidate, where Mairéad Farrell TD has a strong foothold, Fianna Fáil in a constituency once dominated by Éamon Ó Cuív and Fine Gael whose Councillor Eddie Hoare and senator and former TD Seán Kyne continue to be the subject of speculation.
Similarly, Daniel Ennis faces an equally unclear tough contest in Dublin Central, with recent reports Sinn Féin may run Gillian Sherratt, the mother of Harvey Morrison, who died after spina bifida surgery delays last year, Fine Gael's councillor and Lord Mayor Ray McAdam widely predicted to seek a nomination, and Fianna Fáil speculation surrounding Senator Mary Fitzpatrick or Councillor John Stephens.
Added into that group the Green Party's Councillor Janet Horner, People Before Profit-Solidarity's Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Aontú's Ian Noel Smyth, an as yet to be confirmed Labour candidate and rumours Gerry Hutch may contest again, and it is a packed field.
As such, significant attention is likely to be paid to the united left and left-leaning opposition strategy to date.
That approach played a role in President Connolly's eye-catching election win, but all parties, including the Social Democrats, will be fully aware constituency politics and, in particular, first past the post by-elections are entirely different arenas from the race for Áras an Uachtaráin.
With all parties involved in that informal opposition pact seemingly keen to be the one to take home the Galway West and Dublin Central Dáil seat prizes, and all hell-bent on not becoming the also-ran in that arrangement, the coming three months of campaigning could yet prove a litmus test for how that current togetherness plays out in real life.
After all, "vote Left, transfer Left" may be the public cross-party message, but as the Social Democrats two by-election candidates will be keen to point out this weekend, isn't it always better when you're the one to benefit?
Eoin Hayes
There is, of course, one other point which the Social Democrats will no doubt hope is more successfully swept under the party carpet than when the party last gathered in September for its pre-Dáil think-in (it did not have an annual conference last year).
Back then, party officials were given another nightmare to address after a short-lived but deeply regretted Halloween Barack Obama costume momentarily threw Eoin Hayes back into the spotlight, months after the Palantir shares controversy.
The first-time TD for Dublin Bay South is now back in the Social Democrats fold, to the extent that he led a disability motion a week and a half ago as social protection spokesperson and spoke in the Dáil on housing on Thursday.
But almost exactly a year on from his suspension from the party, there are still some ripples - fair or not - that all has not quite been entirely forgiven.
A number of party TDs who spoke on background with RTÉ News in the lead-up to this weekend's conference were keen to be far from critical of their colleague when asked, saying the first time TD has grown since last year's internal party crisis and that everyone is working well together.
But they were not exactly overly gushing either, instead using similar phrases such as how the parliamentary party has now "settled down" after a period of new TDs getting to know each others' positive and negative attributes, and a view voters have mostly if not entirely moved on from the matter.
Together and united in public, with a few small issues still to be fully ironed out in private, seems to be the tone.
Not unlike the wider-left platform of which the Social Democrats is a part, whose creases are likely to be given their own going over with a hot iron during the by-election campaigns over the coming three months, a campaign that, for Holly Cairns party at least, starts in earnest this weekend.
