DELGANY, as well as being one of the prettiest villages in Ireland, is the place where Johnny Fox went to school. And the memory of Mildred Fox's late father was everywhere on the doorsteps of its neat cottages and affluent country residences yesterday afternoon.
Johnny Fox, who farmed under the Sugar Loaf, won a seat as an Independent in Wicklow in 1992 after failing to get on the Fianna Fail ticket. Two years ago, after his sudden death, his daughter, then only 23, won a stunning by- election victory to become the second member of the Fox family to enter the Dail in quick succession.
None of the mainly elderly people on yesterday's canvass talked about taxes or the economy or crime. But they all knew about Johnny Fox. "I knew Mildred's father and her grandfather," says Nicholas Fitzpatrick, a member of the canvassing team who had returned to Wicklow after 54 years working in England. "The honesty and integrity of Johnny Fox was beyond compare. He was an exemplary man, with the kind of charisma you rarely find nowadays."
"I always voted for your father when he was on the county council because he'd always do a person a good turn. And you'll get my vote this time," said one smiling pensioner. The message of family solidarity was a similar one up and down the Old Delgany Road.
Then there were the women who liked seeing a young and attractive woman candidate on the doorstep. "It's great to see young girls doing this. They certainly didn't do it in my day. It's great to see a bit of glamour getting among all those stuffed shirts," said one housewife.
The only person who wanted to talk about issues was Mrs de Buitleir, the naturalist's wife, in her beautiful garden near the Delgany Inn. She was worried that the county council would not bear its share of the sponsorship of pedestrian signs on the dangerously winding and busy road which runs through the village.
In Delgany, they are still worried about a proposed development of 300 new houses most locals don't want and Mildred Fox is opposing unless the proper infrastructure is put in.
In the candidate's own village of Kilmacanogue they talk about proper footpaths and walls for the extension to the M11 motorway. In Roundwood, their concern is about losing a teacher in the local school.
Another worry is the proposal that the Wicklow National Park should be designated a wilderness area. As a farmer's daughter, Mildred Fox defends local people's rights to continue to farm, hunt and fish as they have traditionally done.
Tradition is a theme in her campaign too, albeit an underlying one. She believes "in decent politics, straight talking and honesty in public life in accordance with Christian values".
She worries that "a lot of decisions in the recent past have been against family life, in particular divorce". She would like to see a referendum on abortion. But as a good local politician anxious to maximise her vote, she stresses that this is not "a platform issue".
The local Church of Ireland archdeacon shouted "hello" from his passing car. Her father was a member of his church but she was baptised a Catholic, and anyway she does not think people vote any more on the basis of religion.
In a constituency where 41 per cent of the popular vote went to Independents in the 1995 by-election, Mildred Fox is quite confident she will win back her seat.