As soon as his boat landed at Church Bay on Rathlin Island yesterday afternoon, it began to rain. But if the North's Minister of Further and Higher Education and his wife, Patricia, were slightly damp, their spirits weren't. Agreeing that it beat canvassing in a housing estate, the politician smiled as he disembarked from the boat and surveyed the stunning scenery. The view from the doorsteps is rarely this good.
At the nearby National Trust-owned Manor Guesthouse, Penny Sewel was busy serving customers afternoon tea. The hotel was booked out and, despite the drizzle, Rathlin was full of tourists strolling or cycling around the hilly terrain.
Told that Sean Farren was due to make an appearance, she laughed: "We'll have to find him some babies to kiss, though that may prove difficult." The island's electorate numbers just 73 and the actual population isn't much higher.
Accompanied by Madeline Black and Michael Molloy, two SDLP candidates in the local elections, Mr Farren was driven around most of the island's 30 dwellings in a cream van which also doubles as Rathlin's minibus. First stop were some houses on the most westerly point of the tiny boot-shaped island, close to the bird sanctuary, where thousands of puffins nest.
Rathlin, five miles from the mainland at Ballycastle, doesn't get many visiting politicians. "The votes here will make more of a difference in the local elections than to me, but I think it is important to acknowledge the community here", Mr Farren said. "They have a really positive spirit and they have the same ambitions for their children as anyone else."
"It's not an island in decline", he pointed out, although the population has fallen from just over a thousand to less than a hundred since the turn of the century. "There has been major investment here in the harbour and at the visitor centre. There is still enormous tourism potential. This place has some of the most spectacular scenery in Northern Ireland."
At times Mr Farren's visit was more like a nature trail than an election canvass. The sea sparkled in the distance as the van drove through hills covered in bright yellow gorse and fields full of wild primroses. The driver stopped so that the occupants could observe a colony of plump seals stretched out on the stony beach.
But there was work to be done. "Can I have your support? We are trying to topple the big man", Mr Farren asked one voter, referring to the sitting MP, Ian Paisley. "Somebody has to", a man in paint-splattered jeans replied - the island has a high turnout in elections and traditionally strong nationalist support. While no one is expecting anyone else but Mr Paisley to take the seat in North Antrim, Mr Farren says an increase in the SDLP vote will reflect people's support of his Ministry and the Belfast Agreement.
Few on the doorsteps in Rathlin were concerned with wider political issues. People spoke about the pretty holiday homes on Church Bay, which few of the locals could afford to buy. "How do they fit in with Rathlin?" one man asked Mr Farren, adding: "They don't."
While they voiced their concerns, Mr Farren was given a welcome by everyone. In one house an elderly woman knitting by the fire sang the praises of Brid Rodgers for her efforts with foot-and-mouth. Rathlin has more sheep than people.
Before popping in to press the bemused flesh at the island's only pub, Mr Farren went to the Heritage Centre, where he signed the visitors' book and got local man Augustus McCurdy to sign a copy of his definitive guide to the island's history, Rathlin's Rugged Story. One local legend goes that Robert the Bruce's cave, where he watched that spider weave a web, was located in Rathlin's majestic basalt cliffs. For Mr Farren and his hopes of being an MP, it's also a case of "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again".