Praying for rain to wash the smell of urine off city streets

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

City dwellers are becoming like their country cousins when it comes to their attitude to rain.

Farmers are famous for complaining about periods of drought and then complaining again when the rain comes and they can’t harvest crops.

City slickers are now getting a similar reputation but for different reasons, here in Galway, the former European Capital of Culture.

During Covid-19, in particular, the streets of Galway became party central, a playground for ‘bushing’ in the absence of public houses.

And so it has continued post-Covid. Which is great for the city’s party reputation, except that the infrastructure, such as toilets, isn’t adequate. What has happened, in the absence of toilets, is that male revellers – it’s almost always men – use the streets as urinals.

Street corners, shop entrances and – as has been highlighted in this column before – unused telephone boxes, have all become unofficial outdoor public conveniences where men unzip and spend a penny.

But back to the weather. During dry spells, the city’s streets are so stained and stinking from urine that city residents and those who work here, pray for rain to wash the stench away.

There’s a better hope of rain falling than the authorities actually power-washing the filth from the pavements.

And then when the rain does come, we forget about the benefits it brings, such as clearing the streets of the stench of urine, and we moan about the weather again.

This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. See this week’s Galway City Tribune for more. You can buy a digital edition HERE.