Sir, – Regularly we come up against divergent estimates of crowd sizes at public demonstrations, and competing interests will either inflate or deflate the number for their own purposes. The estimate of crowd size of 10,000 at this week’s Raise the Roof demonstration may be the most accurate ever for a gathering of that magnitude.
Molesworth Street was almost completely full, with some overflow in South Frederick Street. If we take a density of two people per square metre as the upper limit official guideline for crowds at most public events in the UK, and taking into account the dimensions of the street from Kildare Street to Dawson Street (excluding, of course, the open basement areas), then a full Molesworth Street will be calculated to contain 10,000 people.
I propose therefore we adopt the “Molesworth” as the unit of crowd size, one Molesworth corresponding to 10,000 people. The mole has a long and honourable distinction as the unit of measurement in chemistry; “worth” is self-explanatory. The major advantage of the proposal lies in the way in which a crowd size, a number, can be pictured since nearly everyone, after all, is familiar with the street. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH McPARTLIN,
Mount Brown
Dublin 8.