I’ve just had a read through my smell diary (which I’ve neglected badly lately) and I find it interesting all the things I recorded and thought would be good to note down for future reference. What I’m really interested in are the connections I made in some of the entries months ago, to scents I came by recently.
Mixed Scents
Here’s just a few:
- Used coffee granules—flat and muted
- Sweaty onions
- Cheesemongers—like breath and feet together at last
- The Guinness Factory wafting down The River Liffey
- Stranger’s earwax
- Street florist
- That really strong piss, putrid in the street
- Freshly fried ginger and garlic
- Builder’s glue
- Freshly brought up vomit and alcohol
I’m painting a horrible picture here of the Irish and this isn’t a joke. All of this makes me think now how much I take smell for granted. Had I not been keeping a diary, I’d find it hard to explain what Dublin smells like. This is no definitive list as there are lots and lots of lines with mundane, repeated odours that appear and disappear. What’s great about doing this is what it makes me think in hindsight. Did someone’s earwax really warrant an entry? As much as I was heaving at the fresh vomit and putrid piss, why was I compelled to record it? Yup, a florist’s does smell pretty, and the smell of anything cooking gets my tummy rumbling. I also think though that the number one stand-out odour for me in Dublin has to be The Guinness Factory.
The Guinness Factory
I don’t exactly know if the smell of the roasting barley is overly familiar to anyone who’s been to Dublin before. Have you smelled it before? For me, when I caught whiff of it within my first few weeks here my instant thought was the M2 motorway going into Belfast. There, there is a pig feed factory (or so I’m told), and a very similar, familiar smell leaks into your car. This similar odour is the one that carries down The River Liffey.
In Belfast, I thought this smell was potatoes, like stale, sprouting potatoes, I didn’t twig that it was The Guinness Factory until I asked my family. I don’t drink The Black Stuff. It’s a meal in a glass and I like my meals in solid form until I reach the age of 86. No, this Belfast pig factory smells browner than this. In Dublin, it smells of activity. I imagine the people working away in there accustomed to it—as smell does. It smells more foody than in Belfast. Now I don’t know if this pig factory is using barley in its processes, but I’d pat myself on the back if it did for making the connection!
Smells Like Home
It also smells like home, so I’m told. Asking a few people who live here what smells remind them of home, quite a few people have said The Guinness Factory roasting barley. It brought a huge smile to my face when I heard this. It makes me think how my initial thought upon smelling it was of some factory on a motorway on the outskirts of Belfast city, and someone else was saying it smelled of home…
