"It wouldn't be summer without the smell out of the bins on Grafton Street.

It's just a smell of pure, unadulterated filth, distilled through weeks and weeks of hot sunshine. It doesn't smell in the winter-time. There's late night shopping on Thursday, but they collect the bins at 7.30 p.m. and the bin lorries are all out in the evening with the shoppers. They should wait until the shops are closed. And they never hose them out so there's stagnant rubbish at the bottom and they're there all summer in Dublin as far as I'm concerned.

In conversation with Catherine Foley

When in New Zealand . . .

. . . refrain from telling sheep jokes. They've heard them all before, and may not be quite as entertained by them as you are.

Rosita Boland