We’re turning the ‘Capital of Culture’ into a dirty kip

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

The recently retired, but not so retiring, City Arts Officer, James C Harrold claimed on social media this Summer that Galway City Council, “currently spends more on street cleaning and litter-picking than it invests in the arts”.

For a city that’s renowned for its annual Arts Festival, street theatre spectacles, arts and cultural heritage and organisations, and the energy and innovation of its artists, musicians and so on, that’s a fairly miserable and shameful spectre.

Though no figures were given by the ex-City Council employee, it surely is a sorry state of affairs that the self-styled City of the Arts, and the European Capital of Culture 2020, spends so little of its funding on a sector that supposedly sustains its reputation.

Or maybe it’s a reflection of the filthy animals we have become during the outdoor summer while ‘living with Covid’?

As in, it’s possible that City Council does invest heavily in the arts but so dirty have we become as a society – so little ‘meas’ do the visitors and residents of our city have for this place – that the weekly clean-up operation is costing tens of thousands of euros that could otherwise be invested in the arts, and artists, or indeed other important areas such as sports clubs or playgrounds or infrastructure.

The outdoor staff and street cleaners are among the best and most dedicated at City Hall – and it is only right that they are adequately funded to allow them to continue to do their jobs to the best of their ability. But where’s the personal responsibility in all of this; why are we so selfish to think that others – be they Council workers or Tidy Towns’ volunteers – should go around picking up our shite?

Recently this column highlighted the stench of urine on our city’s streets and suggested City Hall employ power hoses as a temporary solution. Thankfully, a good dash of rain washed away the smell . . . but downpours cannot mask our own behaviour since lockdown restrictions were eased, behaviour that contributes to the littering of beauty spots throughout Galway, the new dirty old town.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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