Diarmuid O’Flynn is the hurler on the pitch for protest votes

Diarmuid O’Flynn balances one of his posters against his leg as he passes campaign leaflets to afternoon pedestrians in Carrigaline.

A few yards away his old mucker Phil Ryan is holding his poster up at chest height, like one of those guys who want to entice you down a side street to buy clothes or food.

That accounts for two posters in O’Flynn’s campaign to be elected to the European Parliament. He has eight others for a grand total of 10. That’s his allocation for the 15-county constituency. It’s about as many as some of his fellow candidates might allocate to a small village like Ballyhea, from where O’Flynn hails.