Michael Moynihan: It’s all very well for New York, but etiquette is quite different in Cork

Michael Moynihan explores The Cut’s new etiquette rules

A woman carries her dog in the snow on the Upper East Side of New York. Rule 'No. 11: When another human is present, don’t talk to your animal in the private voice you use when alone together'. This should be strictly enforced in Cork.

Because I believe in taking on challenges so that readers don’t have to, I explored The Cut’s new etiquette rules over the last few days in the spirit of Dr Livingstone stumbling through east Africa. (Hot and sweaty, often lost, an approximate goal in mind somewhere or other.)

The Cut is part of New York Magazine’s family of outlets and platforms, and the rules of modern behaviour it published recently got quite a reaction. Some of that reaction came from other media outlets, some of it certainly derived from our fundamental interest in etiquette — who isn’t curious about the best way to behave? — and some of it was also driven by the fact that its rules were heavily slanted towards life in that city, or towards a certain slice of life in a certain part of that city.