Those black bags have not been put out to celebrate year of the rat

CORK city has become dotted with something resembling an outbreak of big black mumps which many foreign visitors probably imagine to be an avant-garde art exhibition staged as part of the European Capital of Culture programme.

Closer inspection, however, informs the senses that far from being aesthetic, these are more mundane examples of local endeavour to evade refuse charges.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has diagnosed them as a health hazard; Cork City Council says they’re not.