On Dublin: Part 1

Dublin the Dirty
I did not make that up; Celia tells me that "Dublin the Dirty" is what the rest of Ireland calls the city, and the epithet is unfortunately apt. People here--tourists and citizens alike--are terrible litter bugs. There are garbage cans (and a few--very few--recycling facilities) available, but they are either overstuffed or unused. It's terrible. They do have street cleaners, but not enough, and the work is done by hand (rather than by the funny ride-along vacuums we have in Toronto). People also fail to pick up after their dogs (which I rarely see!), and evidently see no reason not to urinate and vomit in the streets after the pubs close. Perhaps as a result of this, many of the sites and parks are locked up at night, which keeps them in decent condition. The Trinity College Campus is by far the cleanest and best kept place in the city, but their conscientiousness borders on mania--I actually watched a gardener chase people off the grass the other day.

Dublin the Polish
Celia and I both noticed that there are a lot of Polish people in Dublin. Many of the stores have signs written in Polish, the banks offer information in Polish, there are Polski Skelp (Polish shops) everywhere... We were unclear on just why this was, until it was explained to me today that Ireland was one of the very few (two, I think) countries that allowed Polish people to come and work immediately when they joined the EU. Naturally, with the abundance of work available in Dublin, many Poles moved to the city, and have become a powerful presence here.

Dublin the Drunk
While there are pubs everywhere here, what is more interesting to me is how readily available alcohol is, and how it is consumed in public. Just about every convenience store (and they are a legion, often on all 4 corners of an intersection--Spar and Londis in particular) has an "Off License" section, where they sell all kinds of alcohol. These are also in grocery stores. And it is acceptable to drink anywhere! People walk down the streets, sit on the corners, go everywhere, drinking! It is so different from North America, where such things are strictly regulated.