Don't let what's happened in London replicate itself in Cork

The streets are our own — except when they aren’t, writes Allan Prosser

A congestion charge poster in London in 2003. London has long been one of Europe’s most congested cities. File photo: Ian Waldie/Getty Images

Dr Johnson may seem an unlikely starting point for a column published in Ireland. The 18th century polymath was a Tory and a deeply committed Anglican, two creeds which have not aged well in the Republic.

Johnson, rather like Goethe, the man who was good at everything, possessed that singular quality of knowing a great deal about whatever is worth knowing. He was a two-legged Georgian version of Google and his magisterial dictionary, published in 1755, contained 42,773 words and 114,000 illustrative quotations from the likes of Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Dryden and Milton.