BREANDAN Mac Cionnaith is the archetypal republican community activist. With a quiet smile and knowing twinkle of the eye, he ducks and dives around questions, carefully measuring out information.
The chairman of the Garvaghy Residents Coalition in Portadown, Co Armagh, he has led opposition to Orange marches in Drumcree for two years. This is his first foray into local government.
Mr Mac Cionnaith (39) is a familiar figure in the town. He works from a battered old computer in a local community centre. He is standing for the council on the parades issue and the "appalling social and economic circumstances" of Catholic residents.
"There is 50 per cent unemployment among nationalists and we don't get our fair share of funding from Craigavon Council," he says. "Orange parades are just another way for unionists to stamp their supremacy in Portadown. They don't want to recognise that we account for 25 per cent of the population."
Mr Mac Cionnaith is standing as an independent nationalist community candidate. Opponents allege that he is really a Sinn Feiner masquerading under a more voter friendly label, but he strongly denies this. Sinn Fein has stood aside for him, although the SDLP hasn't. He should still be elected.
He has received countless death threats from loyalists. He doesn't worry about his own safety, only that of his wife and four children.
Mr Mac Cionnaith, who is unemployed, served four years' imprisonment for paramilitary offences in the 1980s.
Jail taught him patience, he says. "It gave me time to think study and learn. We had endless debates about how to move the struggle on."
A fluent Irish speaker, he has set up an Irish nursery school in Portadown and teaches Irish night classes. He is involved in "101 local campaigns" and says he doesn't have time for social interests although he enjoys the odd weekend in Donegal. His only weakness is cigarettes.
WHILE the Rev William McCrea, the former DUP MP for Mid Ulster, chartered a colourful course in Northern politics, his wife Anne stayed well out of public life. Then four years ago she decided to stand for local government in Cookstown. "An elderly DUP councillor died and it was a matter of getting another Protestant on to the council," she explains.
A gentle, quietly spoken woman, Mrs McCrea (46) might share her husband's loyalist politics but her style is her own. She simply ignores Sinn Fein's two councillors. "I'm not one for fiery speeches," she says with a laugh. "I'm proud to be a Protestant, but if there is confrontation I prefer to sit and say nothing. William is much firmer.
Mrs McCrea says she entered local government to help her community. Initially, she was very nervous at council meetings. She hates public speaking and sees herself "not as a politician but a politician's wife".
She met her husband in 1969 when he was a student minister. "I was 18 and it was love at first sight. William sang at church meetings. It was his charm, not his good looks, I fell for."
As born again Christians, the couple didn't go to pubs, the cinema or dancehalls, but they enjoyed bracing walks along the promenades of seaside towns. They now have five children.
Mrs McCrea says it was difficult raising her family behind bulletproof glass and security cameras. Three years ago, the IRA raked the house with gunfire. The family escaped injury.
A petite, greyhaired woman, Mrs McCrea doesn't opt for the glamorous image of the DUP's bestknown female politician, Mrs Iris Robinson. She wears a grey cardigan, maroon skirt and no makeup. She enjoys Christian romantic novels, word puzzles and gospel music.
COUNCILLOR Hugh Lewsley says that he never fitted into the SDLP. A single parent, he lives in a ramshackle house in the working class Twinbrook estate, drives a 10 year old car, owns two greyhounds and socialises in some of Belfast's less rarefied night spots.
"The SDLP has some ordinary people as representatives," he says. "But to succeed you have to be a doctor, a teacher or a solicitor. I was always asking where the brick layers, joiners and plasterers were. We were too busy in Washington, Westminster and Brussels. I wanted us to address more bread and butter issues on our doorstep."
Mr Lewsley (39) left the party last year and is seeking reelection as an independent to Lisburn Borough Council in Co Antrim. It was his persistent outspokenness against his leader's relationship with Sinn Fein which largely caused the breakup.
"I was a thorn in John Hume's side," he says, still defiant.
"I believed that he was getting too close to Gerry Adams and was giving Sinn Fein credibility. I live among ordinary nationalists and I could see that the SDLP was losing out fast. Sinn Fein's electoral rise might shock many in the SDLP, but it doesn't surprise me."
Critics claim that Mr Lewsley was a loose cannon who disregarded party discipline and was consumed with a vicious hatred of republicanism. Mr Lewsley is heartily disliked by republicans and has suffered their violence. Two years ago, he was beaten up for his opposition to "punishment" attacks.
Despite his hostility to the Provisionals, Mr Lewsley stresses that he comes from a similar background to republicans. Many of his schoolmates joined the IRA and were shot dead by the British army. He played football with Bobby Sands. He was an apprentice glazier under Gerry Adams's uncle.
Most SDLP representatives lack this grassroots experience, he claims.