As posters go up, people are usually more engaged in politics, outside of the typical Dáil bust-ups.

Candidates will walk down cul de sacs, up country lanes or, as in Galway West, fly out to the Aran Islands to try and convince voters they can be trusted to represent them in the Dáil.

But spending a day out on the campaign trail, what do you learn?

People are polite

If you spend any amount of time on social media engaging with politics, you will see extreme vitriol from what are often anonymous accounts.

You might think this then transfers into the public, but this is generally not the case.

As politicians and their teams of canvassers walk up to people’s doors, when they get an answer, there is generally a willingness to chat.

This was the case in Galway West this week, where the Irish Examiner joined Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne and Sinn Féin’s Mark Lohan in the city.

Both candidates got a fairly warm reception on the doors, with few people openly challenging their views and most appearing willing to listen to their pitch.

There can be pushback

While people are polite, this doesn’t mean that all callers are welcomed with open arms.

Kyne got some pushback from one door, with criticism over how Fine Gael handled the Presidential election as well as the family and care referendums.

They criticised the previous Government’s plans to remove a reference to a woman’s role in the home, as well as Fine Gael’s instruction to councillors to vote against candidates looking to get on the Presidential ballot.

Kyne acknowledged the referendum, saying he had told then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in 2023 that there was “no need” to change the Constitution.

On the Presidential election, Kyne said the “choice wasn’t great”, but that he wasn’t personally asked to support any other candidate.

He also suggested that some candidates had sought to get on the ballot too late, while adding there needed to be reform to the nomination process.

Know where you’re going

When candidates are going canvassing, their teams will generally have a good plan of what streets they’re going to hit.

Journalists often have sneaking suspicions that party press operatives will bring them along on canvasses where there will be a strong reception for their particular candidate.

Parties will always deny this, but when nearly every door is someone happy to say they’ve got a vote, it can be hard to think otherwise.

Fine Gael opted to bring me to the leafy suburbs of Salthill, while Sinn Féin picked the more working-class estate of Fána Burca on the edge of the city.

The former saw lots of Fine Gael voters happy to see Kyne and MEP Nina Carberry, while Lohan and Pearse Doherty proved popular on the doors.

Make sure you’re well briefed

While candidates in an election are generally well versed in local and national issues, curveballs can emerge on the doors.

For Lohan, one voter expressed serious concerns about a ban on watersports at Silverstrand beach.

The change, implemented by Galway City Council in 2025, has prohibited people from surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing.

Lohan was across the issue, telling the man that as a keen sailor, he’d be happy to push for the ban to be overturned.

However, he acknowledged the issue was a more niche request, with most of the concerns on the doors being around cost-of-living.

Stay on message

Throughout the hour-long canvas in Fána Burca, Mark Lohan had a refrain he kept coming back to at every door.

“We’re trying to put it up to this Government,” he said repeatedly, telling voters the best way to do so would be sending him to the Dáil.

He did claim that, while his election wouldn’t force a change of Government, it would be a “blow” to both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

Kyne, similarly, kept on message as he continually pressed home the work being done by the Government, citing recent measures to tackle the rising cost of fuel.

• Tadgh McNally is a political reporter for the Irish Examiner