Maurice Fitzgerald probably has a better left foot; but when it comes to making long, dramatic solo runs, not even Kerry's best football player could keep up with Jackie Healy-Rae.

Last Tuesday saw arguably his finest performance in the green, white and orange jersey, when the Cabinet got together to make its final decision on regionalisation and, incredibly, it was Healy-Rae who emerged with the ball.

He broke away from the pack, evading a potentially bone-crushing tackle from Sile de Valera, who claimed it was she and John O'Donoghue who had won the day for their two counties, Clare and Kerry respectively. And while recriminations raged behind him, the Independent TD embarked on a mazy solo that didn't end until he got off the train in Killarney on Thursday night, to be swallowed up by hundreds of cheering supporters.

In his wake he had left disarray. Fianna Fail TDs, bitter at having to warm the back benches while the Independent wins successive man-of-the-match awards, were in almost open rebellion. Liam Aylward complained that there was no point being a Fianna Fail backbencher, because "Jackie HealyRae is running the show," while Brendan Kenneally claimed backbenchers were being treated as "lobby fodder". But most damaging of all, Sile de Valera was attacked by one of her own team, when junior minister Wille O'Dea took "grave exception to members of Government going on the national airwaves claiming they have some inside track which will haul their region into Objective 1 status".

Healy-Rae is not insensitive about Fianna Fail's difficulties. After all, in the wake of his election in June 1997, he sought - and received - a clarification from this newspaper over a subheading on an article which suggested he would make the party "crawl" for his support. What he had said, and the difference will not have much comforted the party, was that Fianna Fail could "come looking for my support on their knees".

So while he may not have taken delight in the party's plight on Thursday, the Kerry Independent was again looking down on it from a height as he was shouldered off the Dublin-Killarney train. And with a swipe at Ms de Valera, he left the crowd in no doubt that he had been the saviour of Clare as well: Clare had been the necessary bridge that joined Kerry to the rest of the Objective 1 region. There was a moment of confusion in Killarney, apparently, when Bishop William Murphy preceded the politician off the train and was briefly confused with him.

It wasn't the first time the Kerry Independent had inspired ecclesiastical comparisons. At the rally to celebrate his election in June 1997, observers noted the papal style of his victory rally, when he climbed out a hotel window to give an urbi-et-orbi address to supporters.

There are at least two other similarities between the TD and the Holy Father: (1) both wear a cap on all public occasions, and (2) even their most minor health ailments attract intense public scrutiny. Healy-Rae has twice been hospitalised since his election. A year ago he was taken ill on the train to Dublin, while last February he was admitted with a bout of flu. Neither upset appears to have daunted him.

But it's a fair bet that if he falls ill again in the near future, Fianna Fail backbenchers will not be praying for a quick recovery.