During the canvass in Tipp South last week Seamus Healy toured the constituency in a cavalcade led by a lorry with a guitar player on board. At one stop Healy inquired what the song was. It's Bring on the Revolution, said a supporter. "Oh shit," said Healy. "I told him not to sing that. He will frighten the electorate."
Healy now joins fellow Independent left winger Joe Hig- gins on the backbenches. When Higgins was elected in 1997 a well-wisher asked him was he the first Trotskyite to sit in the Dail. "Yeah," he said "but don't tell anyone."