About half way through the Tipperary South by-election campaign, the headquarters of the independent candidate, Mr Seamus Healy, acquired its first fax machine.
It was from this part-time office, in a modest terraced house in Clonmel, which is also home to Mr Healy's 87-year-old mother Josie, that the most remarkable by-election result in recent times was masterminded. "When will it all get back to normal?" Mrs Healy asked on Monday as journalists waited for interviews and well-wishers continued to call to offer congratulations. She was enjoying the moment, though. "It was a great win. The whole Government was here campaigning, you know, and still he won it."
That he did was a surprise to casual observers, but in reality, Mr Healy's accession to the Dail has appeared inevitable for some time. Since its foundation in 1985, the Workers' and Unemployed Action Group, of which he is a member, has grown steadily in strength.
The group was established by a small nucleus of people, including several trade unionists, who were unhappy with the direction being taken by the Labour Party and particularly its decision to go back into coalition with Fine Gael. Between 10 and 15 attended the first meeting.
Its rise has been slow but relentless. Standing on a jobs and tax equity platform, Mr Healy, who had campaigned for the Labour TD, Mr Sean Treacy, in the 1970s, won a seat on Clonmel Corporation in the first year of the WUAG's existence.
In 1991, he secured a seat on South Tipperary County Council. In 1994, the group caused a sensation when it won four of the 12 seats on Clonmel Corporation and had a bigger vote than Fianna Fail.
Three years later, Mr Healy, in his fourth attempt to win a Dail seat, secured more first preference votes in the general election than Labour's Mr Michael Ferris, but lost out on transfers. Last year, the group maintained its four seats on Clonmel Corporation, doubled its representation on the county council to two, and won a seat on Carrick-on-Suir UDC.
"From 1985, we have been progressing; we haven't suffered a setback yet," says Mr Healy. "Some people said it's a huge upset and an overnight success but we've been working at it for 15 years."
The group's politics are easily defined, he says. "We've always said we're ordinary people working for ordinary people. I know it's a bit of a cliche but it does describe us."
Its name may sound anachronistic in these days of labour shortages and recruitment drives abroad, but only to those, say members, who are unaware of the pockets of deprivation which continue to exist in south Tipperary and elsewhere.
"Bertie Ahern came down to Clonmel at the start of the campaign and said the unemployment situation had been sorted," Mr Healy says. "But the facts are that unemployment is three times the national average in Carrick-on-Suir and in Tipperary town, and there's an advance factory vacant in Cashel."
"South Tipperary has been neglected. Unemployment is a problem and it's going to have to be addressed." Indeed, a founding member of the group, Mr Brian O'Donnell, who is expected to be elected mayor of Clonmel next week, is unemployed.
Mr Healy, who is married with four daughters aged from eight to 21, rejects claims that the group has built its success on taking populist stances and rejecting unpopular but sometimes necessary measures. WUAG councillors, for example, have always voted against the annual estimates of Clonmel Corporation, partly because of the inclusion of service charges.
The group withstood intense pressure in 1994, when Mr Healy was mayor of Clonmel, to support water charges, which have since been abolished. It continues to oppose refuse collection charges.
But the group is a "positive outfit", he says, and the extent of its support is evidence that people appreciate that. "Our very existence and the fact that we have taken seats from the other parties has meant they have had to look over their shoulders at us all the time and they simply haven't been able to get away with neglecting Clonmel."
Ms Phil Prendergast, a member of both the corporation and county council, joined the group in the early 1990s. A midwife and former member of the national executive of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, she had met Mr Healy through his role as administrator of the general hospitals in south Tipperary.
"I liked the way they operated and I liked the fact that their politics were similar to my own, so I found it very easy to become a candidate in the elections on behalf of the group."
Mr Healy, who has been a full-time politician for the past 18 months, has made it clear he will not engage in a pact to support any government, and will deal with issues on their individual merit.
The group, which now has about 150 activists throughout south Tipperary, has its own way of doing things. WUAG councillors do not go on "junkets"; corporate or business donations are not accepted; it does not hold church gate collections and does not canvass outside churches at election time
"People are entitled to attend religious services without being annoyed by people like ourselves," Mr Healy says. Instead, the group is funded through events such as dances, table quizzes and flag days. His office, up to now, has been run by a part-time secretary, Ms Carmel Byrne.
At the weekend, voters in several parts of the constituency were greeted by the sight and sound of a car and loud hailer reminding them of the name "Seamus Healy". The election was over, but now they were being thanked for their support. The intended message was clear: the politicians from Dublin had gone home, but the successful candidate was still here.
While the major parties struggled to keep within the £14,500 spending limit imposed on each candidate, Mr Healy estimates the cost of his campaign at £8,000. Including, presumably, the cost of the fax machine.
