Tipperary South General Election candidate speaking to the converted on old stomping ground

When Seamus Healy and his team took to the familiar streets of the Old Bridge to canvass it was a case of preaching to the converted.

The Old Bridge is Healy territory, it provided the base for his lifelong community activism and a bedrock of his political career, local and national, and his party, the South Tipperary Workers and Unemployed Action Group.

“He knows he doesn’t have to even come in. He has our vote,” said Mary in  one of the houses in McDonaghCrescent.

Everybody knows Seamus Healy, the woman out walking the dog, people on the way to Centra shop and there is a wave from passing motorists.

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Tipperary Association Dublin

“It takes me a while to get to the door,” Lecia Hackett tells Seamus after he knocks on the door.

TRAFFIC

The 88-year-old spoke about the amount of traffic passing her door and how it was almost impossible to cross the road to the Centra shop. The speed and the volume of traffic  tearing through the Old Bridge is now a huge issue for all of the residents living there and there is a lot of frustration in the area not being included on the route of the town bus service.

Another woman he met on the canvass expressed her disappointment at not being able to vote for him even though she lives in Kilmacomma.

“I now have to vote in the Waterford constituency where I know none of the candidates,It is crazy,” said the woman.

Seamus said that the loss of that voter and many others because of changes made to the boundaries of the constituencies had contributed to costing him a seat. 

“Killmacomma is part of the town, people go to school in Clonmel, work in Clonmel, socialise in Clonmel and are part of the town” insisted Seamus Healy.