Even though it's not raining, Ms Catherine Murphy is sheltering under a deep-purple umbrella as she stands outside the entrance to the Abbey Farm housing estate in Celbridge, Co Kildare.
"I've got high-maintenance hair," the independent candidate explains with a smile, as she and her three male volunteers gets their canvass under way.
The purple of the umbrella matches the rosette she is wearing, and her posters that are now to be seen in most parts of north Kildare. "It's a strong female colour," according to Murphy. "Purple and green were the colours of the suffragette movement, that's why I chose it." Unusually for an independent, Ms Murphy is already the front-runner in the Kildare by-election.
A long-time local representative, she has three general elections and one European election under her belt.
A former Workers Party member, she followed most of her party leadership to Democratic Left in the early 1990s and subsequently to Labour in 1998, but left in 2003 following a long-running dispute with the party leadership that dated back to before the 2002 general election.
She says that she was promised, but did not receive, a Seanad nomination from the party in return for not putting her name forward in Kildare North, in order to give sitting TD, Mr Emmet Stagg, a clear run.
Her departure from Labour did not appear to damage her. As an independent she topped the poll in Leixlip area in the town and county council elections last year, and now enjoys one of the highest profiles of any local councillor in the north of the county.
It is easy to gauge that profile on the doorsteps of Abbey Farm. Although it is the early afternoon, there is somebody in every second house, and most of those recognise Ms Murphy's name.
She has two simple messages that she is determined to deliver to the potential electorate. Her first she describes as "quality of life" issues. In a wealthy and predominantly urban constituency, areas such as childcare, public transport, roads and health services are, she believes, underfunded and neglected.
Her second message is that she is the most experienced candidate, having been elected for the last 17 years, first on Leixlip Urban Council in 1988, and then on Kildare County Council in 1991.
"I don't think we should put a novice in the Dáil," she tells one woman, in a thinly veiled reference to the fact that one of her main rivals, Ms Áine Brady, has never held a council seat, while Mr Paddy McNamara of Labour and Mr Darren Scully of Fine Gael were first elected just last year.
Observers believe Ms Murphy is at a disadvantage in that, in the absence of a constituency-wide operation, she will find it difficult to branch out of her Leixlip base, especially into Naas and the west of the constituency.
She disagrees. Her area is much wider than that, covering Maynooth as well, while she represented Celbridge throughout the 1990s.
Whatever challenges Ms Murphy faces, they are small compared with the other two independent candidates. Mr Seanán Ó Coistín is standing on an "independent republican" platform. The virtually unknown 24-year-old from Kilcock, ran in the local and European elections, polling less than 110 votes in the former.
He believes that there are many issues, such as alcohol abuse, lack of public transport, and a united Ireland, that are not being addressed by the mainstream parties.
The third independent candidate, 53-year-old Mr Gerry Browne, is a life-long Labour party supporter from Leixlip, who failed to get a party nomination.
Running as an Independent Labour candidate, his main issue is the health service, and his own party's policies towards it.
"They are sleepwalking themselves towards a full-blown privatised healthcare system like they have in the United States."
He is also concerned at the pact between Labour and Fine Gael, which he says will lead to a dilution of the party's policies, in order to get into government.