On the campaign trail - local elections: Cllr Pauline Tully is married to a man convicted of killing Det Garda Jerry McCabe, writes Liam Reid.
Sinn Féin's unwritten rule of not canvassing pubs falls at the first hurdle in Kilnaleck on Saturday afternoon. The small Cavan village of less than 200 residents and one street is renowned as the pub capital of Ireland, with its 11 hostelries easily outnumbering all the other businesses combined.
After four stops - the beauty salon, local butcher, Eileen Brady's clothes shop and the local garage - the Sinn Féin team are running out of places to canvass.
Sinn Féin councillor and local resident, Pauline Tully McAuley, advises her charge, European Parliament candidate, Pearse Doherty, that a rapid change of tactic is needed.
Showing the famous Sinn Féin ability to adapt to circumstances, Doherty agrees readily and they enter their first pub. Excluding pubs from the canvass, according to members of the canvass team, is rooted in the need to avoid their candidates getting buttonholed by barflies, rather than avoiding having to buy a round.
They needn't have worried in Kilnaleck however, as McAuley introduces her charge to the drinkers, and steers him in and out of the pubs in quick succession. She is on firm ground in her native village, and on first-name terms with everyone she greets.
In 1999 McAuley, then known as Pauline Tully, took the last of six seats in the Ballyjamesduff electoral area, becoming the second Sinn Féin member of Cavan County Council.
Since then she began a relationship with Pearse McAuley, one of the four men convicted of the manslaughter of Det Garda Jerry McCabe. She married him last year in the local church. In the last five years, the 36-year-old teacher has established her reputation as a solid local representative.
While she is expected to take a large proportion of the vote in her native Kilnaleck, it is apparent she is also popular with the voters in Ballyjamesduff, also on her Saturday afternoon canvass trail with Doherty.
Dressed in a smart black suit, she knows most of the people she meets, telling those not in her electoral area, "don't forget Pearse". The party has put on a strong show in the area, the McAuley and Doherty posters outnumbering those of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
Outside the Brogue pub, which is full of South African workers from the local Liffey Meats beef plant, a smiling dreadlocked smoker shakes Doherty's hand. "I know you," he says, pointing to a poster across the street.
Doherty, buoyed by Saturday's TNS/mrbi poll in The Irish Times, is canvassing hard for preferences, as well as number one votes. With 15 per cent, he is within shouting distance of a seat.
This part of Cavan, while having a moderate republican tradition, has never had a strong Sinn Féin presence until McAuley. Pauline McAuley is very much seen as a potential future TD. Should the party's vote continue to rise, she is seen as a likely running mate with Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin in the Cavan Monaghan constituency.
The issue of the release of her husband, and the other three convicted of killing Jerry McCabe, may be a national political issue, but on the ground in Cavan it has not surfaced at all. Whether it is out of deference to not raising personal issues at a local political level, or simply because it could backfire politically, it has been a no-go area of political debate for other candidates.
Coming from a strong republican family, she makes no apologies for her political views. Sitting in her front room, which includes republican artwork and photos, including a picture of a balaclava-wearing IRA colour party, she acknowledges her party can evoke strong reaction.
"There are always going to be people who don't agree with my politics." She also makes no secret of who her husband is, and describes him as a "political prisoner" in her election literature. He visits their home whenever he is on temporary release, which his wife says is "not too often".
When he visits, he is first and foremost her husband and is considered part of the community, she says. "When we got married last year, word was leaked to the media about the wedding - we suspect the Department of Justice. But every one around here wouldn't talk to the journalists that came here. They closed ranks."
She would like to be a Dáil TD, but she is worried "how it would affect family life". The couple are building a house in the Kilnaleck area at present, and she hopes to start a family. She sees her husband every Sunday when she visits Castlerea. "Sometimes I think the weeks, and months and years are passing us by."
Families of people murdered and injured by the IRA may find it hard to sympathise with her predicament.
She is aware that his release is a political issue. "I would have hoped he was released at this stage. But I have to accept it is going to be part of a wider [settlement]."
"...But sometimes it gets to me, when I see some of the stuff that's printed. It's an attempt from the Government to somehow affect the Sinn Féin vote, and increase their own."