The non-jaywalkers were almost certainly fellow-tourists. No one waits for the green man if there’s no traffic, ever, unless they’re trying to model road safety for their small children, and even then they’re likely to cross on the red saying ‘Don’t do this when you’re by yourself!’
And that Wetherspoons, now closed (I think), was generally thought of locally as a public service, for siphoning off the roughest clientele other city centre pubs didn’t want! I’ve never had a drink there but more than once, walking past during the daytime, I’ve had to dodge around people fighting on the ground outside. The security guards from Paul Street shopping centre used to sick of it. It gets addicts shooting up in the loos, too, I imagine, as the Boots that dispenses methadone is nearby. Cork has a growing heroin problem.
Maybe your local Spoons in the UK is even rougher?😀
Or again, you saw tourists.
If you’re in Cork again, try the Long Valley, Maureen’s, Dennehy’s, Sin É, or Fionnbarra’s.
I mean, I think you’ve spun a narrative out of two things you misinterpreted as ‘normal for this place’.
Which of course is potentially the case for lots of culture shock stories.