Cormac MacConnell: Bonfires, marching bands, and strokes...

The election candidate who called to your door five minutes ago with a fistful of literature and a mouthful of promises is almost certainly a thoroughly decent and earnest and worthwhile citizen.

This person is playing their part in the most fundamental exercise of our democracy, and is to be commended for that.

It is, however, a great pity that a modern Irish election, like so many of those worthies involved in this digital era, is so bloody boring and uninspiring, at least for me.