Are Irish people ‘filthy’ or is David Norris talking rubbish?

This week, Independent Senator David Norris claimed Irish people were "filthy" as he repeated his criticism of the neglect of Dublin's O'Connell Street.

The fault for the decreptitude of our major national thoroughfare lies squarely at the feet of the Irish people and Dublin County Council, he said. The street sweepers' hands are clean.

“The cleaning of O’Connell Street is quite extraordinary, because we are a genuinely filthy nation. We are a filthy race of people, but that street is kept really clean and wholesome all the time.’’

From where Austin Cregan is standing, selling his newspapers and periodicals on the corner of O’Connell Street and Middle Abbey Street, he can see that Norris has a point.

The street is “well swept”, he says, but he is waiting for rain to fall and clean the pavements. He points to the black residue of soft drinks and less-palatable liquids that have left stains around his stall. Nature will have to deal with that, he says.

“You do get people who are just dirty. You’ll never change that.”

Tourists are better at not dropping rubbish, he says. “They are more mindful as they are visitors.” But smokers get a harsher word. “They don’t see cigarette butts as litter. But they are.”

But it is the smell of urine that really gets him. “You’ve heard of a pizzeria, well this is a piss-eria,” he says pointing at the ground near his stall.

He thinks that is "filthy".

Linzie Carey is pushing her two-year-old daughter Hallie to the bus stop in her buggy. They are on the way home to Ballyfermot.

Hallie already knows to give mammy her rubbish and Linzie has a bag stuffed full of used paper. She thinks that the Irish are indeed “filthy”.

“They don’t care and they just drop what they please. Dublin is a very popular place to come and natives should be more mindful of tourists,” she says.

The Whelans from Co Clare are up in the capital for a short break. They love O’Connell Street and would have been staying in Wynn’s Hotel, right off Dublin’s main drag, if it hadn’t been “stuffed”.

“Look at all the people going about their business. I think it is an awful pity Clery’s has closed, but I love the GPO and the hotels. They do a grand job with this street. Just grand.”

The Whelans are called Joseph and Mary. We laugh, but what better travellers to ask?