Last year, as Donald Trump emerged as front-runner for the US Republican Party presidential nomination I wrote that talking hypotheticals in politics may be pointless but it can still be fun.

Now, given that Mr Trump – after all he has said since about women, immigrants and minority communities – is one win away from occupying the White House, hypotheticals don’t seem so fun anymore.

In my When US President Trump comes to visit blog (posted August 2015), I suggested that on a visit to Northern Ireland the billionaire-celebrity commander-in-chief would mock the cost of division in our society and lack of electoral choice.

Today, perhaps a trip by Northern Ireland’s political leaders to the US might cause an even bigger stir.

Can you imagine it: Martin McGuiness and Arlene Foster spending St Patrick’s Day at the Trump House? Rolling eyes at each other as The Donald pontificates on the ‘art’ of ‘winning’ peace deals.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has already ruled out attending any such function under a Trump presidency.

As American politics becomes more acrimonious, ours is becoming more accommodating.

Our politicians have travelled the world telling a story of conflict, peace, attempts at reconciliation between two divided communities. In the US, divisions may not be anywhere near as rampant as they used to be here, but its society has broken into more than just two fragments. The two main candidates for the presidency have never been more reviled.

Where would First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness begin with a well-wishing speech to President Trump on healing divisions that he played a significant hand in causing?

Could they mention former President Bill Clinton’s contribution to our peace process? Going by the latest Trump-Clinton debate, Mr Trump might have put Hillary in jail by then.

America’s contribution might be glossed over just as quickly as a bowl of shamrock could be thrown into President Trump’s hands before heading home.

What our politicians could share with a volatile Trump and gridlocked Congress, however, is experience of getting our own political house in order.

For too long Stormont business was dominated solely by nationalist-unionist confrontations; with the formation of an official opposition, unionists and nationalists on both sides of the Assembly have come together in government and on backbenches with issues like housing and health enjoying more prominence.

What our politicians could share with a volatile Trump and gridlocked Congress… is experience of getting our own political house in order.

As American politics becomes more acrimonious, ours is becoming more accommodating.

Hypotheticals ahead of November’s US election may not be fun anymore, but the opportunities for a Northern Irish political landscape transformed are extraordinary.

Before agreeing a Fresh Start, our politicians sought – and frustrated – intervention by US diplomats to help solve our differences.  Today, this offer could be reversed and by St Patrick’s Day all but rescinded.