Irish radio DJ Elaine Howley posted this on Twitter the other day:
The teddy display at Cork City dump has always been strong but it is reaching new heights pic.twitter.com/AgHIfhAlp3
— Elaine Howley (@potentialprez) May 18, 2020
Which lead me to discover that, yes, this stuffed animal display like a terrifying hybrid of Toy Story and It is, in fact, a thing. As The Irish Times reported in September 2019:
As charities stopped accepting toys they arrived in droves to the dump. But instead of discarding the onceloved teddies, workers have placed them artfully — and humorously — around the entrance to Cork's Civic Amenity Site just off the South City Link Road.
[…]
"We used to donate the toys to charities, but health and safety regulations stopped that," [said site manager Derek Cambridge.]
"Teddies come in daily. Some arrive brand new. We thought children would take them so we left them out by the entrance. But they didn't, so we put them up here instead.
"It seemed a shame to just dump them."
I quite like Cork. Last time I was there, I enjoyed some great craft beer as I laughed at all the graffiti boasting that, "Cork is daycent." But a stuffed animal trash pile might be an even more beautiful metaphor for that fine city.
