I REGULARLY HAVE to be talked out of confronting strangers in public by concerned friends and family who think the exchange is likely to end with me getting decked.

And while that probably sounds like I’m only dying for a scrap and should probably get myself a hobby, it’s actually born of something fairly virtuous.

And that is the intense rage I experience when I see someone littering.

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Honestly, I didn’t think I cared that much, but as the years go on and the number of people I see doing it increases, it turns out I do.

Watching someone leave an empty bottle and a chicken fillet roll wrapper on their Luas seat as they vacate it is enough to make me question how willing I am to run the risk of getting decked.

Seeing a group of people casually drop cigarette boxes or crisp packets on the ground as they walk through town without giving off even the slightest hint that they’re fearful of retribution makes me think getting decked would be worth it if it meant they were forced to pick it back up.

My reaction is instantaneous, but before I’m able to pick up their discarded rubbish and return it to them, I’m talked out of it by someone operating at a less hysterical level, who has no interest in having a screaming match with a stranger on a Dublin street.

Here’s the thing; I know well I’m likely to get a ‘f*ck off’ – at best – if I challenge them on it, and Christ knows I’ve no interest in a screaming match either, and yet every single time I see it happen, I’m milliseconds from chasing after them, fumbling with their empty wrappers while tearfully explaining why they should use a bin in future.

But what about you? Where do you stand on it?

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