In Laois-Offaly the political clock has been wound back to post-Civil War times. The resignation of Senator Pat Gallagher has left the Labour Party in the political lurch.
For weeks the dogs on the midlands streets were barking that Mr Gallagher was to quit, speculation which he denied until last Tuesday.
He had clearly agonised over his decision to take a job as director of community and enterprise with Westmeath County Council.
Pragmatism won out over politics, and as Mr Gallagher (36) surveyed the political landscape across the sprawling constituency from Shannonbridge on the Galway border to Graiguecullen adjoining Carlow, he called it a day.
For the Labour Party it was a salutary lesson, one that Fine Gael learned here in the past with Oliver J. Flanagan, that it is not politically prudent to build your hopes around one personality. Mr Gallagher's "sound man" status and industrious nature aside, the Labour organisation in Laois-Offaly is in tatters.
In Laois it failed to elect a single town commissioner or councillor in the June local elections, and out of 10 branches in the past only two in the county are now affiliated at headquarters. In the rapidly expanding urban centres such as Portlaoise, Labour has been eclipsed by Sinn Fein, whose candidate, Brian Stanley, exceeded the combined votes of the three Labour candidates when he was elected.
By contrast, Mr Gallagher's own personal popularity had seen the Labour star rise in Tullamore where he topped the poll in both the UDC and county council elections, and thanks to this performance the party now holds four of the nine seats on Tullamore UDC.
Citing professional and personal reasons - wanting to spend more time with his wife, Bernie, and two young children - Mr Gallagher, who was elected to the Dail on the "Spring tide" of 1992 (with 6,966 first preferences) and subsequently lost his seat back to Fine Gael's Mr Tom Enright in 1997 after polling a respectable 6,741, has called it a day.
Regardless of his personal achievements Mr Gallagher, who has resigned from the Seanad, Offaly County Council, Tullamore UDC and Offaly VEC, to take a job of assistant county manager rank, was always living in the political shadow of the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen.
His absence, along with the decision not to seek re-election in the June local elections by two Progressive Democrats councillors, Bridget Emerson in Offaly and former senator Cathy Honan in Laois, returns the midland five-seater to a predictable political dogfight between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.