Kelly Earley

ONE OF THE few things that I dislike about Irish culture is our apparent inability to conduct ourselves on public streets. I’m not even talking about the drunk, the churlish or the loud. At least they make themselves known, and you can give them a wide berth. The most frustrating people on our pavements are the pedestrians. 

In many ways, we are lucky. Ireland is a more relaxed place for walkers than many of our neighbouring nations.

London’s pedestrian culture is a bit more cutthroat, with many making their way to work with the haste of Mo Farah. If you’re not mowed down by a finance bro, you might find yourself climbing over a pile of abandoned, dockless Lime bikes.

In Germany, jaywalking is looked upon with revulsion. Our Department of Foreign Affairs even includes a warning on its website about this for Irish citizens heading there.

We can count our blessings that we don’t have to barrel around the city at full speed, or risk a five-star GTA wanted level for crossing when the lights are red. However, our relaxed pace of living comes with its drawbacks. 

Dublin: The epicentre 

It does not take long to see the problems caused by pedestrians when you take a stroll around the capital. As a small country, with a high concentration of tourists and an abundance of narrow pavements, there are some areas that create particularly bad bottlenecks – though from what I’ve seen, the lack of courtesy exists far and wide. 

People are understandably walking around at a leisurely pace in areas like Temple Bar and Trinity College. Locals will avoid these areas as much as possible, to save themselves from fighting through stag dos or ending up in the background of Instagram posts showcasing the city’s architecture and glistening cobblestones. 

It’s the areas where you don’t expect it that you’ll run into the most trouble. All around Dublin, and the wider country, you will find groups of people walking two, three or four abreast, who cannot conceive of getting themselves into single file when they’re passing someone on a footpath. Somehow, we have completely normalised having zero self awareness in public. 

These groups (though, it’s most often couples) will flippantly occupy the entire pavement, allowing individuals to endanger themselves by stepping into bike lanes to get around them. I am just one bad day away from charging through a four-abreast group on the footpath, Red Rover style. 

The cyclists aren’t getting off the hook here either. Cycling on the footpath is still fairly common, despite the improving cycling infrastructure in Dublin. I’m happy to look the other way when it’s a kid or someone who’s clearly terrified of the road (and subsequently, moving at a cautious pace that doesn’t put anyone out). However, that’s rarely the case, with many cyclists doing it just because they’re on the wrong side of the road and can’t go into the bike lane. 

Friendly footpath get-togethers

My next greatest enemies on the streets of Dublin are people who mindlessly congregate, blocking the entire footpath. They have slightly less responsibility than the anti-single-filers, solely because they are not looking directly at the people they’re blocking. They’re usually standing outside a pub, deciding where to go next or looking up directions on their phone. 

They get a little bit of extra grace, because they’re usually tourists. We can’t expect everyone to get the hang of adapting to a new walking culture right away, considering the fact that it takes Irish people a while to wrap their heads around the gravely serious escalator system in London. Or any country with functioning underground rail, for that matter. Maybe some day we’ll have a metro of our own and figure it out. 

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Next on my list are the abrupt stoppers. Just when everything seems alright, and you get into a flow state, walking behind someone who’s travelling at a healthy pace: bam. The person in front of you halts in a manner that could cause whiplash, leaving you to hit the brakes before you cause a four-pedestrian pile-up. Again, there is a mind-boggling lack of awareness or consideration for others. 

Then there are the people who fail to recognise when someone behind them is walking faster than they are. I suspect some people do realise, and they get a kick out of walking as slow as they possibly can. But others are truly oblivious. It’s always when you try to overtake these people that the right-hand side of the path is covered in bin bags and cardboard, lamp posts, electricity boxes, rubbish bins and other obstructions. 

Don’t even get me started on when umbrellas are introduced to the equation. No elaboration needed there.

All of these different factors make for a very unpleasant experience for anyone who understands the unspoken rules of sharing public spaces. And if things out there weren’t tense enough, then we’ve got the loathed bush man to look out for.

Kelly Earley is a writer and podcaster from Coolock, who has a deep interest in culture, technology, community and social justice. She writes for The Journal every week.