Intriguing to see Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar reverse roles in more ways than one.

This time last year Varadkar had just resigned as taoiseach and Martin was tánaiste. Now Varadkar is retired from elected office and Martin is taoiseach.

However, it isn’t only their relative elected roles that have reversed.

Varadkar has taken upon himself the role of advocate for Irish reunification, hitherto the position of Fianna Fáil taoisigh, whereas Martin has abandoned his party’s traditional policy and northern nationalists too, and won’t even use the phrase ‘united Ireland’.

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It’s true that the official title of Fine Gael is ‘the united Ireland party’, but no Fine Gael leader since Garret FitzGerald has ever done anything to advance such a policy and even in FitzGerald’s case, precious little.

Now, in a series of interviews and speeches, mainly facilitated by Ireland’s Future (yours truly being a board member), Varadkar has presented a carefully worked set of proposals which puts him at loggerheads with Martin.