Sharp suited Sinn Fein candidate a little at odds with local lifestyles

SINN FEIN councillor Jackie Crowe seizes the hand of yet another female constituent on Castleblayney's Main Street. "How're ye, Carmel," he says, and turns to tell the reporter: "Carmel's a sister of Paddy Cole, you know."

Either Castleblayney is a very small town or Paddy Cole has a lot of sisters. This is the second one we've met already and we've only been on the canvass a little more than an hour.

Indeed, the time it's taken us to cover a short stretch of the town centre is causing concern. The Sinn Fein candidate, Caoimhghin O Caolain, holds a footpath conference: "I need a call from you, Jackie. Are we going into the pubs or not?"

The councillor assures him it's only the bar staff he wants to tar get. "But you know it doesn't work like that," says O Caolain, fearful of the effects of drink fuelled loquaciousness on a timetable already under pressure. Still, he disappears dutifully into Flanagan's pub, leaving one of the party workers to mutter: "I don't agree with this at all. It's taken us half an hour to do that wee stretch there."

The canvassers make better progress in the housing estates. In a small local authority estate called Bree to the west of the town, the almost military operation comes into its own. Advance parties prepare the way, opening doors for the candidate or saving him trips up the garden paths of empty houses.

Jackie Crowe helps break the ice. Then O Caolain arrives on cue, flanked by Crowe's two attractive daughters, who seem to know and be known by everybody. Their casual manner complements the candidate's more formal style.

Fifteen years after he resigned to become a full time Sinn Fein worker, Caoimhghin O Caolain still looks the part of the senior bank official he used to be. As comfortable in a suit (and getting daily more comfortable as he loses weight on the campaign) as any of Sinn Fein's new wave of politicians, he delivers fully formed sentences and little speeches, tailoring his key messages for different ears.

"A Sinn Fein TD for the new millennium" and "an idea whose time has come" are two of his favourites. But sometimes he adds: "I will be taking my seat, you know" or "We must be at the talks table," as a parting shot.

The sharp suit is a little at odds with the lifestyles he meets in most of these houses. In some doorways, women dressed in the council house uniform of baggy teeshirts and leggings bring up problems with rent allowance or defective windows. These O Caolain refers back to his lieutenants with the order: "Make a note for Jackie to call back before we leave the estate."

The issue of Northern Ireland hardly arises at all. An exception is a woman with a broad south midlands accent, who first fires off a broadside about the size of the canvass party. "We're like flies," she taunts, as the entourage descends on her front door. Then: "Are ye going to have a ceasefire if I vote for ye?"

"We're working towards it," the candidate begins, but she cuts him off: "Don't be working towards it at all. Have it." O Caolain tries several different tacks to curb the woman's sharp tongue. But this is one battle he's not going to win, and he soon beats a retreat, noting the woman was not local and supposing she was not "au fair" with his record.

"I have been central to the development of our whole peace strategy. I'm completely committed to the peace process. Anybody who knows me knows that."

The odd dissident apart, the Bree estate appears to belong to Sinn Fein. But that is part of the problem for O Caolain. These estates have voted for him before and there is a suspicion his vote has been maximised in Monaghan, while Cavan remains indifferent. The party won eight council seats in Monaghan in the last local elections, none in the other half of the general election constituency.

"If we had our Monaghan vote in Cavan, we'd be topping the poll rather than looking at a fifth seat," the candidate says, offering several explanations for the failure in Cavan, none of them completely convincing.

His other "problem" is his prominence in the party's political strategy. His campaign length roster for the canvass shows a day lost for the talks at Stormont last week. And today he'll be in Dublin, flanking Gerry Adams at the manifesto launch.

O Caolain was director of elections in Cavan Monaghan when the hunger striker Kieran Doherty was elected in 1981. It has been a long investment for him and for the party to get the vote anywhere near that since. But especially in the wake of its successes in the North, Sinn Fein is more optimistic than for a long time about a breakthrough in this part of the Republic.

They did great in the North," one supporter tells the candidate. "They did," O Caolain replies. "But we have a historic opportunity here in CavanMonaghan, going into the new millennium. We've been knocking at the door here for $15 years, you know. And we will take our seat if elected."