Presidential Election.

You're not if you support the SCC, it's a state of exception to borrow from Agamben and there is zero justification for it in the 21st century - there are multiple ways the issues you refer to can be dealt with.

You seriously think we could try the drugs gangs, including the 2 big ones, with a jury?

Cases where the Supreme Court upheld the constitiionality of the Supreme Court include:

O’Reilly v. Attorney General [1985] I.R. 117 , The State (Walsh) v. Lennon [1939] IR 112, and then more definitively in O’Callaghan v. Attorney General (1972) and later cases.

• In a 2016 poll (Irish Times / Ipsos MRBI), 67% of Irish voters supported retaining the SCC; 21% favored abolishing it; about 12% were undecided. Link: The Irish Times

• Support for the SCC was broad across major parties: Fine Gael, Labour, Fianna Fáil, and Independents had high levels of backing. Even among Sinn Féin supporters, although more divided, a slight majority favored keeping it.

Yes, of course, there are multiple ways that juries can be protected and witnesses too without resorting to these courts.

The conviction rate is more than double that of the circuit courts, and a third higher than the central criminal court - those figures alone should raise concerns.

Support for something doesn't legitimise it, only a minority of US citizens consistly agree with closing Gitmo, an indefensible opinion clearly!

I've no doubt if there was an informed debate on the SCC, those figures may change.

Look at the way it's been used in the election campaign, it's being used to attack CC as if there was no merit to her position on the SCC, a position supported by human rights organisations, the UN etc. Of course no journalist intervenes in the debate (that I've seen) to challenge the narrative or question the hegemonic opinion of the establishment parties....it's one more issue thrown up by this election that illustrates graphically the very real problem of contemporary political journalism and it's an important reason why CC has to win this election...

Could be another twist in this election on the way. According to reports of the Dr Cora Stack hearing on X, the judge stated that "the party whip can be used in many situations, but not in a presidential election selection process". The judgement has been reserved and will be delivered in writing on October 23rd.

https://x.com/MCompassMedia/status/1978162777517703359

I'm not finding that quote anywhere beyond a Facebook account and this Twitter account. So I'd be highly suspicious of if it's even a real quote. Even if true, it would only really have an impact on future elections I imagine.

Given the fact that no news outlet is even reporting that quote makes me suspect that the election will proceed as normal.

Yep, it's an out of context quote at most. If there was even an inkling of a scandal journalists would be jumping on any story atm.

Can a party legally use the whip to influence the presidential nomination process though? I imagine that's where the constitutional element comes in i.e. actively preventing councillors and Oireachtas members from participating in the nomination process.

I think the issue would be that this is not a Dáil vote : obviously the whip system is used there all of the time. A presidential election is completely separate and has nothing to do with how the Dáil operates on a day to day basis. The question that would appear to be being pursued here is if it is constitutional for a political party to prevent its individual councillors or Oireachtas members from nominating a presidential candidate they want to nominate.

They can still back a candidate if they so wish but may face internal disciplinary procedures. Internal processes are not something the Constitution holds an opinion on.

In Heather's case it was Murphy's Law "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"