Sir, – Frank McNally (An Irishman’s Diary, July 24th) may think the city does not smell as badly as it did when James Joyce wrote Ulysses, or indeed as it did during the 1970s when I was a teen, but walking through Dublin a week ago, having just returned from Madrid (a city well used to hot dry summers), I can confirm that Dublin did indeed stink like hell.
The fact that Dubliners have become acclimatised to it doesn’t mean it’s not real. I appreciate that most years we can wait for rain to rid us of the accumulated stench of rubbish, weed and the use of walls as urinals, but if our summers are to be drier in the future, we will have to rethink our use of daily downpours as a hosing-down measure. – Yours, etc,
Sheila O’Flanagan,
Clontarf,
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Dublin.
Sir, – Frank McNally hopes rain will soon come to wash away the detritus from the streets of Dublin. I hope that when the rain comes, it is a heavy downpour rather than just a sprinkling.
Some time ago I had the misfortune to attempt to walk between two bookstores, Chapters in Parnell Street and Eason in O’Connell Street, after a light shower of rain. The sprinkling mixed with the filth on the surface of the footpath created the equivalent of a skating rink.
After a few attempts to emulate Torville and Dean I gave up and continued my journey, holding on to the walls and railings along the way. – Yours, etc,
Tony Corcoran,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
