IT'S the kind of evening that makes you realise why Bertie Ahern is seemingly obsessed with having summer elections. Despite the most glorious of sunny April days, there is a cut to the breeze that has all the canvassers rooting through their car boots to search for an overcoat.

Annagassan, a picturesque and well-tended village just north of Ardee, has a wonderfully sleepy feel to it even on a Friday night, but the main square, outside the Louth Arms bar, has suddenly become a hive of activity. Two vehicles emblazoned with Mairead McGuinness photos and logos have just arrived and an impressive number of canvassers - at least a dozen - have gathered.

At the centre of it all is McGuinness, looking every inch the consummate politician.

Stylishly dressed in a trendy white jacket with matching white shoes and pair of pinstriped linen trousers, she is chatting ninety to the dozen and offering a kiss on the cheek to each arriving canvasser.

Not that the small group of teenagers assembled outside the local chip shop - it's strangely reassuring to see teenagers still do that - are overly impressed. As they are dispersing, they begin to chant the name of S�amus Kirk, the long-time Fianna F�il TD from mid-Louth, who may have most to lose from the surprise decision of McGuinness to contest the general election in this constituency.

If they notice the jibe, the Fine Gaelers don't let on. Instead they purposefully pile into cars and the convoy heads to an impressively solid looking new housing estate on the edge of the village.

Tallensfield Manor is no hotbed of seething anger at the failures of the government. It has a prosperous feel to it with two saloon cars parked in the driveways of many houses. The most common response at the doorstep, from the young couples with families who predominate, is: "We're very happy here." If they have made up their mind how they are going to vote, most aren't letting on. However, the reaction to McGuinness is extremely friendly with most recognising her immediately. It helps also that she has an easy, relaxed manner at the doorstep. "What's your name. Will I guess?"

McGuinness asks a young child who has come out to see what's happening. After a number of failed attempts at the name, McGuinness jokes that the girl will have to give her a clue or "we'll be here all night".

While many of the residents, when prompted, tell McGuinness there are no particular issues that come to mind, those that are mentioned are decidedly local. The scaling back of services at Louth Hospital, with services being centred on the big hospital just up the motorway in Drogheda, has been a big issue in the constituency for a number of years. On the Friday night of the Fine Gael ardfheis, McGuinness cannily eschewed the hospitality of the Citywest hotel to attend a major public meeting on the issue in Dundalk. There were no votes to be had in Citywest that night.

The quality of the footpaths to the village and dogs soiling the huge green area in the estate are mentioned, but overall the mood is of general contentment.

The estate is covered in Bertie Ahern time - that's particularly quickly for anybody who hasn't seen the Taoiseach's blitzkrieg style of canvassing - and it's back into the cars and across the road to another new estate.

Again the reaction is friendly and warm.

McGuinness tells a young mother a lighthearted story about how in Collon the night before a man was telling her that his wife was from McGuinness' home town of Ardee but agreed far too readily, for the MEP's liking, with her suggestion that the man's wife would have been much younger than her.

As the chat progresses, it emerges that McGuinness and the young woman, Lisa, are related by marriage. "Aunty Ann and Uncle Michael!" exclaims McGuinness. "I used to babysit Mark and Barry." A politician to her fingertips, she quickly asks if the others in the family are still in Louth. "Will you text the others for a vote?" she asks. (Well, she is a Euro-star of sorts. ) When Lisa tells her that her surname is Carpenter, McGuinness gives a quick burst of 'We've Only Just Begun' - the dreamy chart-topping ballad from the group of the same name. It seems appropriate given that she is the new kid on the block in Louth politics.

At a house a bit down the road, a woman tells McGuinness that she "probably" has her mind made up and there won't be a first preference for her, before politely adding: "But thank you very much for calling."

At another, a young man tells McGuinness he has never voted in his life. But he is open minded when the MEP quick-as-a-flash suggests that she could check to see if he's on the register and come back to him. "I'll have to do it sooner or later, " he says, more good naturedly than out of any sense of resignation.

While activists will tell you that one in every 30 houses will give the whole notion of being canvassed decidedly short shrift, there is no evidence of that among the good people of Annagassan. At the next estate, a woman tells McGuinness that her glasses are lovely. "They really suit your face." Her son is peeking out the door wearing a Man U jersey bearing Ronaldo's name. (GAA diehards can relax, some of the aforementioned teenagers were wearing Louth jerseys. ) "If the other fellow was here, he would be saying, 'Mammy, she's famous, '" she adds.

At a nearby house, man's best friend - but canvassers' worst - is marking his territory - or possibly just letting the activists know that this is a Fianna F�il house.

"There's no way, " McGuinness says, indicating that she will not be running the gauntlet. But undeterred, one of her canvassers clearly stuns the dog by happily skipping up the drive to pop some literature in the door.

By the time our canine friend has recovered from the shock of his authority being challenged, the man is safely back on the other side of the gate. Fine Gael will hope that it is a metaphor for the general election.

Pausing to chat with the Sunday Tribune, McGuinness says the big issues in the constituency are health ("I think it's sad that in 2007 you have to bleed on-air to get healthcare"), education and planning. When it is put to her that the houses called to tonight seem reasonably contented, she says that her view is that with the election yet to be called people are "interested but not yet engaged". Canvassing is important, she says, because people want to "take a good look at you mentally and physically".

McGuiness is quick to play down suggestions of tensions between her and her two running mates - TD Fergus O'Dowd and councillor Jim D'Arcy. "We get on very well.

Obviously it will be competitive, but we are very focused on winning the two seats, " she says.

Asked is that not an improbable outcome, McGuinness notes that it was also said that the party couldn't take two out of three seats in the East constituency for the European elections - it did. Besides, she says, her entrance has livened up a contest that virtually everyone had been calling 'as you were'. She has certainly done that.