Brianna Parkins: Is Ireland full of inconsiderate people or afraid of confrontation?

For a nation with a friendly reputation, Ireland can be an incredibly inconsiderate place and it hurts. Physically. A National Council for the Blind survey found parked cars blocking footpaths and other obstacles dumped in the way have caused injuries to people with sight loss.

About 38 per cent of respondents had been hurt by tripping or walking into something that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Then there’s the issue of dog poo which seems at times to form a stinking carpet over urban pavements. A collective reminder of people’s inability to think of others by refusing to quite literally clean up their own mess.

Not every city has had to remind their citizens to clean up dog poo repeatedly like Dublin. In other places it’s just seen as an obvious, unsaid social contract of living in society like wearing clothes to work or thanking the bus driver. But in Ireland, the poo problem remains. People even go as far as bagging it up (the grossest part of the operation) but then leaving it on the ground for someone to step on, letting the poo seep out the corner like a grim icing bag. Usually there is a bin less than 300 metres away.

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This suggests people know the right action to take but that they can’t be bothered doing it. Which is a bigger problem. The owners of cars and trucks blocking paths probably feel a pain of “I shouldn’t be doing that” when they pull in. But they think “I’ll be quick/no one will notice/it’s just this once/other people do it.” Which is a disaster. If everyone thinks that while in theory it’s good this rule exists but that they are an exception to it, there’s no point to having the rule at all. People will just do what they want because a sense of FOMO develops if people see other’s gaining an advantage to breaking the rule while they follow it like gombeens. They feel cheated.

But why do people feel safe breaking the rules, why aren’t they afraid to park their car across someone’s gate or half up on the footpath, forcing a mother with a pram to walk into traffic as she tries to get around? One piping hot take with absolutely no empirical evidence to support it is related to Ireland’s avoidance of confrontation.

The person walking away from their dogs’s steaming, fresh deposit on the ground feels confident they won’t be called out in the moment. While they might be glared at or receive some passive-aggressive tuts that will be all. Bystanders will feel free to assassinate their character but only to each other after the offender has left or if they’re really jazzed up about it they call up Joe on the radio to give out.

This is not an argument for vigilantism by the way. This is not a call out for neighbourhood watch gangs roaming the streets punishing rule infringers with rough justice. This is an invitation to politely point out to someone that their actions might cause harm to someone. An “I’m sorry but you might not have noticed that someone can’t get by your station wagon there on the path” goes a long way.

In other places, the best way to call out bad behaviour might involve aggression (New York), a stern talking to (Germany) or just a well-placed “Oiii!” But in Ireland, we have something better. We have collective guilt that can be weaponised. “Clean up your dog poo” might cause some defensiveness. But “I’m sure you didn’t mean to but leaving your dog’s mess on the ground makes it hard for little children with sight loss to play. They can’t see it and you wouldn’t want that getting on their hands would you?” will have the offender almost scraping the mess off with their own fingernails with shame.

The other option is for the Government to mail out 10 stickers to every household per year. These are bright pink and have the word “EEJIT” on them. Citizens will be allowed to stick them on to offending cars blocking paths and if they’re quick enough, on to people leaving behind dog mess.

Some people will see this with a hint of jobs-worthiness. Finding loopholes in rules is a pastime to some and seeing others following the laws inspires scorn and pity. But 70 per cent of respondents with sight loss said they feel less confident to go out independently. Why should their rights to exist safely be trumped by someone’s arrogance to assume that the rules don’t apply to them?