As the film Titanic continues to make box office history, voices have been raised in Cobh - the cruise liner's last port of call - as to why the oncegreat seafaring town was not given a place of prominence in the movie. Last week the Cobh Heritage Centre reopened for business after its annual four-week closedown. Naturally it lost no time in signalling the fact that it contains the finest Titanic exhibition in Ireland.
It features a gangway walk-in to an interpretative area which includes a wall of remembrance to the victims and survivors who boarded at Queenstown, as it was then called; pictures of the Titanic moored off Roche's Point in Cork harbour; stories of the tenders bringing passengers out to board; items including menus, a re-creation of the bedrooms and an extensive range of press cuttings on the disaster.
What has the Titanic got to do with litter in Cork? I heard a story recently from a Cork cinema-goer who brought his Dutch guest to see the film. Before they went in they bought "munchies", as he described them. Having enjoyed the film he noticed that the guest had a bag in his hand. He had collected the wrappings from his crisps and sweets and was bringing them out in an orderly fashion to dispose of them.
When the lights went up the visitor was astounded at the state of the cinema. No one else had bothered to do as he had done. There was litter everywhere.
"Why do the Irish do this?" he asked. That was a hard one to answer. Then he wanted to know - "Why is everything bought in an Irish shop put into a plastic bag?"
Another hard one.