It was a dire day for Fianna Fail. The earth moved in Tipperary South and their man was caught in the earthquake.
Nothing like it had happened in decades. A 15-point drop in support for the party since the last general election was off the Richter scale in political terms. Was there a safe seat left in any constituency?
Fianna Fail had not expected to win the seat. But it had confidently predicted that Barry O'Brien would head the poll on the first count. Instead, he had trailed in after Seamus Healy, the Independent who eventually won the seat, and Senator Tom Hayes of Fine Gael. The only consolation - and it was a small one - was that he came in ahead of Ellen Ferris of the Labour Party.
In Leinster House, TDs and senators of all parties took stock, measured their opponents and resolved to try harder. There wouldn't be time for extended holidays this summer. Insurance had to be taken out against an autumn election and that meant working their constituency clinics and raising their profiles with the electorate.
The Government had passed its middle age and was on that slow slide towards dissolution. Worse than that, there was serious dissension between Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats. And relations were not expected to improve. Not after the Hugh O'Flaherty debacle. Not with the Flood and Moriarty tribunals spewing out a diet of sleaze for the foreseeable future. Bertie Ahern was a man marooned by events: unable to go forward and unwilling to go back. The party vote had imploded under a barrage of negative publicity at national level and a lacklustre election campaign orchestrated by Noel Davern, the local Minister of State.
But Mr Ahern didn't become party leader and Taoiseach by lying down before obstacles. Of course there are clouds on the horizon. And not just in relation to the tribunals. Rising inflation could make plans for a spectacular December tax-cutting Budget go pear-shaped. And if the Budget is going to be low-key, the Progressive Democrats may be less willing to take political pain.
The Taoiseach congratulated Mr Healy, recognised "a particularly disappointing result" and noted vaguely that "recent events" had a significant impact on the outcome.
With that out of the way, Mr Ahern looked forward to two more years in Government and promised to deliver real change. Tipperary South would be a catalyst to make them "try harder and listen better".
John Bruton wasn't impressed. The Fine Gael leader was looking forward to a pre-Christmas election. Tom Hayes had confounded the pundits by coming ahead of Fianna Fail and Labour. And he had come close to winning the seat. The result had blown away any nascent challenge to Mr Bruton's leadership within the party and he was on a roll.
Even Michael Noonan was on board, rooting for an early election. Charlie Flanagan, who had directed the by-election campaign, said it was a great day for Fine Gael and a great day for John Bruton.
When both he and Theresa Ahearn were singled out for mention by the leader in his moment of glory, heads nodded sagely in Dublin. A front-bench reshuffle, planned for next Wednesday and Thursday, is likely to reward those who stood by Mr Bruton.
The new spokesmen will be expected to generate a higher party profile and to create the impetus necessary to take on Fianna Fail successfully in a general election campaign.
Ruairi Quinn made the best of a bad result. The Labour Party leader had attempted to win a fourth by-election out of five and had come a cropper. In spite of the potential for a significant sympathy vote, Ellen Ferris had only marginally increased the vote won by her late husband in 1997 and had trailed in fourth.
The prospects were poor. Labour had lost the seat it won with great difficulty in 1997. And the momentum created by the by-election in the three-seater constituency almost guaranteed future seats for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, with the third going to Seamus Healy.
Perhaps Mr Quinn was taking a long-term view or relying on Labour's resurgence elsewhere. In any event, he predicted a general election within months and said the Government was now listing so badly that it was only a matter of time before it capsized.
Seamus Healy wasn't a fly-by-night Independent. Ever since he had fallen foul of Sean Treacy and the Labour Party more than 15 years ago, he had been fighting elections. Now, he said, the Workers and Unemployed Act ion Group was bigger than the Labour Party in Tipperary South, with seven members on the local authorities.
Mr Healy said the result was a judgment on successive governments that had neglected Tipperary South and people, he said, wanted better housing, health services, jobs and a decent living.
Still, he wasn't afraid of another contest. The sooner this Government went to the country and there was a change, the better, he said.
Coming on top of recent opinion polls, which showed Independents taking 10 per cent of the vote, the Tipperary South result is likely to add to their autonomy in the Dail and to the vulnerability of the Government.