Food is intertwined with every facet of human existence, from the first feeding of a newborn to the culinary customs observed at Irish funerals and wakes. Despite being a fundamental necessity for life, food’s scholarly potential has often been overlooked, being quietly ubiquitous. It was perhaps dismissed in the past because of its typical linkage with the domestic realm and femininity, regarded as too commonplace and everyday for examination.
Yet, envision what insights can be brought to light if we examine through the ‘gastronomic perspective’ something as elemental as our sense of location, our inherent connection to our local area and rural roads. Think about the linguistic depth of ‘Bóthar’, the Gaelic term for a road (originating from ‘bó’ – cow), its dimensions dictated by the size of a cow, symbolising our profound historical ties with cattle farming; this extends even into terms like ‘buachaillí’ (boys) and ‘cailíní’ (girls), denoting, respectively, cowboy or cattle herder and little shepherdess, with the suffix ‘ín’ adding a layer of diminutiveness.
The authentic connotations of placenames such as Clonmel, Cappataggle, Glenageary, and Kanturk, all having food-associated etymologies, only get divulged through comprehending their original Gaelic roots. All these instances capture what Martin Doyle captures aptly as ‘interpretation from the Gaelic that conserves the pronunciation but erases the meaning’. In a kind of reverse cultural imposition, we frequently use several Hiberno-English culinary terms without ever delving into their etymological roots. Case in point, the widely adored ‘spud’ (potato) in everyday use, descending to us from ‘spuddle’, a rudimentary inexpensive knife, and later ‘spud’, a tool used for removing weeds, as penned by Swift:
My affection for Sheelah is firmer still
than the toughest Weeds growing amidst these stones:
My Spud is capable of separating these Nettles from the Stones,
But no Knife is sharp enough to remove you from my Heart.
Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill immortalised her beloved spouse, Art, in the renowned verse Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. This work was given a modern interpretation by Doireann Ní Ghriofa, a dual-language author, in ‘A Ghost in the Throat.’ Food was a key method in which Art expressed his passionate adoration and loyalty to Eibhlín Dubh. Eibhlín never renounced her love for him and portrayed it as follows:
This love was never regretted:
You brightened a sitting room for me,
Decorated chambers for me,
Heated stoves for me,
Baked exquisite bread for me,
Roasted meat for me,
Sacrificed animals for me;
I took comfort in duck’s feathers
Until the time of the midday milking,
Or longer if it suited me.
Art translates to bear in Irish. In The Solace of Artemis, the poet Paula Meehan is somewhat relieved by the fact that each living polar bear traces its mitochondrial DNA back to a brown bear that resided in Ireland during the Ice Age.
Our culinary history can be found in the fine details as much as in the grand sagas. For instance, the carving marks discovered on the kneecap of a brown bear from a County Clare cave, which dates back to approximately 10,500 BCE. It is known that consistent human habitation in Ireland started around 8000 BCE. However, similar carving marks, found on a reindeer bone from County Cork, indicate occasional presences of hunters as far back as 33,000 BCE, leading JP Mallory to suggest that the earliest recorded item on the Irish menu was venison.
Contemporary research uncovers a contrasting narrative to Ireland’s culinary past as opposed to the conceivable tales and legends previously related. Our forefathers were not unfamiliar with European luxuries; take for instance the pine resin hair gel on the Clonycavan Man – a preserved body from a bog that was uncovered in 2002 and carbon-dated to between 392 BCE and 201 BCE – that has origins in northern Spain or southern France.
On merchant ships that brought wine, spices, and different textiles along with pine-resin hair gel into their cargo, the returning journey was probably laden with butter, herring, salmon, and wool. As the saying in Bristol goes, ‘Heryng of Slegothe [Sligo] and salmon of Bame [the river Bann] heis made in Brystowe many a ryche man’.
Moreover, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, an Irish scholar fluent in three languages, was a prominent figure in the court of Emperor Charles the Bald during the ninth century. In the year 858, he translated renowned Greek theologist Dionysius the Areopagite’s works into Latin. As pointed out by Michael Cronin, Ireland held a central position in the translation sector. A culture that was far from the margins had Irish scholars engaged in translating several ancient Greco-Roman warfare texts into Irish, between the 11th and 13th centuries.
When viewed from the spectrum of culinary literature, the 11th century’s Aislinge Meic Conglinne presents an interesting aspect. This narrative within the narrative is arguably the earliest indigenous European interpretation of an imagined land of abundance. Its variations can be spotted in the English and French tradition’s later version, Land of Cockayne, and the German Schlaraffenland. In this fictional land of abundance, food and drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) hold a key place. References to ‘Bragget’ (a kind of honey beer), ale, and mead feature in this context, and Michael Dietler’s statement that alcohol could arguably be seen as a type of food with mind-altering properties, is apropos here.
Inherited medical families in Gaelic Ireland translated Arabic knowledge of distillation from Latin texts, laying the groundwork for the eventual establishment of the whiskey industry. In the vast Irish medical literature from the Gaelic Resurgence period around 1350-1500, there are comprehensive and explicit references to distillation and uisce beatha, a therapeutic beverage. Furthermore, Susan Flavin, through her work on the FoodCult project, sheds light on Ireland’s conceptual integration with Europe in the middle of the 16th and 17th centuries, demonstrating the diffusion of European concepts and symbols into Irish culture.
This narrative takes the reader through a timeline starting from the prehistoric times and the Ice Ages in Ireland till the introduction of early fishermen and farmers, livestock rearing, cultivation, and advancements in cooking techniques. With the establishment of educational institutions specialising in poetry, medicine, and music in the early Medieval period, the portray of how our Gaelic chieftains’ remarkable hospitality influenced all strata of society is conveyed. The Brehon Laws laid out mandatory food provisions for each class, such as wheat, barley, and oatmeal prepared in either fresh milk, buttermilk, or water.
Though cattle remained primary, butter’s consumption amongst the lower-wage earner fell once it started to get commercially traded. The introduction and widespread acceptance of potatoes as a necessary food item revolutionised Irish society. Numerous personal letters, literature, diary entries, and linguistic examination assist us in understanding the tuber’s rise to social and nutritional prominence, and the subsequent catastrophic event – the Great Famine from 1845-52. Technological advancements in the late 19th century brought about a revolution in food production and broader society. Duiring the early 20th century, Ireland embraced modernity’s numerous facets – ranging from the expansion of restaurants, hotels, tourism niche to rural electrification, televisions, increasing consumerism and global assimilation.
The latest advancements in scholarship sees new sources of evidence being incorporated with enhanced scientific practices. Technological advancements such as detailed radiocarbon dating, the analysis of stable isotopes, and the ability to deduce the geological characteristics of the food consumed from the strontium levels in teeth, supplement traditional examinations of old faeces, latrines and water-soaked grains. These approaches frequently build upon and shed new light on knowledge drawn from ancient tales, mythology, and early medieval vernacular literature, a wealth of which is found in Europe.
Different versions of these tales are found around the island, spreading much as spores disperse in the wind. Nicholas Williams’ book on Irish plant names and stories details the ancient practice of herbal treatment in Irish mythology. Dian Céacht, Tuatha Dé Dannan’s famed healer, is said to have healed the wounded soldiers of Tuatha Dé by immersing them in a boiling pot of medicinal herbs during the Battle of Moytura, from which they would emerge rejuvenated to continue the fight against the Fomorians.
A tale of professional envy led Dian Céacht to murder Miach, his son, who had outshone him in their shared field of healing. His sister, Airmed, however, was able to continue their hereditary knowledge of herbal cures. Legend has it that these skills were passed down within the Pavee community, signifying an unbroken chain from mythical times to the present.
Food has long played various roles in society—serving as a tool of war, a symbol of status or a sign of hospitality, and often a central component of festivals and special occasions the world over. Various traditional practices—such as the spilling of blood on Martinmas, the sacrifice of the Michaelmas goose, consumption of nettles in spring, the preparation of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, the picking of fraughans or bilberries during Lúghnasa, the gathering of blackberries in late August, or the eating barmbrack or colcannon at Halloween—remain within living memory, having been meticulously recorded by folklore researchers.
The late emergence of cookbooks penned by Irish authors could potentially be tied to the deeply ingrained cultural practice of associating traditional recipes and food methods with the agricultural cycle and calendar, negating the need for written instructions. In addition, both Katherine Simms’ dissertation on Medieval Irish feasting and Elaine Mahon’s exploration of state dining in Áras an Uachtaráin during the 20th century highlight the pivotal role of social hierarchies and status-based rituals when it comes to dining.
Numerous settlers ranging from Vikings to Huguenots, and most recently the Irish Palatines, along with the contemporary multi-ethnic population, have each played a part in shaping the country’s food culture and dining rituals. During its transformative journey, the history of food and culinary practices have remained vibrant and evolving, showcasing the multifaceted narrative of human civilization.
The study of Food history has gained international recognition over the past fifty years, being highly influenced by the French school of thought ‘histoire des mentalités’, mainly linked with the Annales school of historical writing. The oldest and most renowned conference on food history, the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery established in 1979 and presently running, was initiated and co-headed by Alan Davidson, a retired diplomat and food historian, and Dr Theodore Zeldin, a social historian. Their profound enthusiasm and shared passion for food continue to motivate and shape discussions at similar get-togethers to this day.
The study of Irish food history had been relatively neglected until twenty years ago, notwithstanding the contributions of a handful of pioneering investigators focusing on areas such as pre-potato Irish diets, ancient Irish agriculture, economic background, archaeology, as well as folkloric and traditional customs.
The 1990s saw the blossoming of this field in Ireland, coinciding with the emergence of a new liberal and vocational approach to culinary education at the Dublin Institute of Technology (presently known as the Technological University Dublin). This period also saw Irish academics attending the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery, shaping Regina Sexton’s famed work, “A Little History of Irish Food”. From then onwards, it was clear that the exploration of Ireland’s food history had found a firm place in scholarly discussions and amongst the general public. In the early 2000s, research in food history gained traction at postgraduate and doctoral levels, an area of inquiry that continues to evolve and broaden.
In 2012, the premier biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium took place at the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology on Cathal Brugha Street, which has since been moved to the campus at Grangegorman. The Symposium, inspired by its Oxford counterpart, led to the publication of the notably influential “Tickling the Palate: Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture”.
In 2015, a special edition of the “Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C”, titled “Food and Drink in Ireland” was released, and the following year it was published in book form. The particular interest in the topic of food was further underscored by the 2018 special ‘Food Issue’ of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, thereby solidifying the crucial place food holds in Irish academia and propelling it further into prominence.
That same year, scholar Christopher Kissane astutely noted that while food studies had gained importance amongst historians, there were still hurdles to be overcome with regards to tackling such an expansive topic. Notably, in the same year, Dr Susan Flavin of Trinity College Dublin successfully secured funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for the FoodCult project. This collaborative endeavor, launched in 2019, aims to investigate both the basics of everyday diets in early modern Ireland, circa 1550 – 1650, as well as the cultural significance of food and drink during this era.
In 2021, Folk Life: Journal of Ethnological Studies marked the release of a distinctive issue dedicated to the culinary traditions and practices of Ireland. This freshly curated compilation offers a comprehensive examination of Irish gastronomic heritage, effectively augmenting the extant academic material on the subject. Experts from a vast array of fields including archaeology, mythology, linguistics, literature, and Irish and food studies, among others, have contributed their collective insights, thereby presenting an up-to-date perspective on Ireland’s culinary journey from its earliest settlers to contemporary times.
The publication is organised into six distinct areas. The initial part, concerned with Ireland’s Prehistoric Food and Archaeology, comprehends four enlightening sub-sections. JP Mallory commences by guiding readers through a culinarily significant stretch from the final Ice Age to the Iron Age, emphasising a notable evolution in the Neolithic era (4000–2500 BCE) marked by domestication and cultivation of animals and crops. He ends the discussion by acknowledging the role of Proto-Celtic language in preserving and transmitting culinary knowledge to subsequent Irish-speaking generations.
Following Mallory, Finbar McCormick offers an intriguing analysis of the Mesolithic settlers’ restricted carnivorous diet in Ireland, backed by osteoarchaeological findings. He cites the limited animal variety due to the last glaciation period and absence of a postglacial terrestrial passageway as the primary reason for this restraint. However, he notes the prominence of cattle as a meat source increasing with the onset of agriculture in the Neolithic era, a tradition that persists even today.
Seamas Caulfield’s section presents a personal approach to culinary heritage while exploring dairy farming in his native Co Mayo. Using intergenerational wisdom and modern isotopic and radiocarbon techniques on pottery fragments, Caulfield uncovers aspects of ancient dairy farming in Céide Fields’ landscape. Finalising this section, Nikolah Gilligan evaluates the role of plant-based foods and agriculture during Medieval Ireland c. 500–1100 CE, relying on historical texts, archaeological digs and archaeobotanical examinations to support his claims.
In the second chapter of the book, entitled Bog Butter, Bees and Banqueting in Medieval Ireland, the authors Maeve Sikora and Isabella Mulhall delve into the fascinating topic of bog butter. They provide the reader with a comprehensive look at this intriguing find in Ireland, which spans over four millennia; from the early Bronze Age to the period post-Middle Ages. They offer radiocarbon dating results from the National Museum of Ireland since 2000 and summarise the range of containers or coverings used for butter storage. Their chapter also delves into the myriad and intricate reasons for the act of butter depositing in Irish peatlands.
Shane Lehane, combining his understanding of history and folklore and practical experience in beekeeping, authored an enlightening segment on honey and ancient Irish beekeeping. Evidence of bees and honey in archaeological records is circumstantial, yet the lore of St Modomnóc introducing beekeeping into Ireland could point towards the integration of sophisticated bee tending techniques following the arrival of Christianity.
The theme of Medieval Irish banquets among the Gaelic chiefs is the focus of Katharine Simms’ contribution. Her main evidence base on seating arrangements, status and priority hails from the historic feasting establishment at Tara, the Tech Midchuarta, also known as ‘The House of Mead Circulation’. The location of a massive mead or ale container within the house – either in the centre or at an end, varies depending on the historical text consulted.
Honey also makes an appearance in William Sayers’ chapter, which offers an in-depth analysis of the Aislinge Meic Conglinne, one of the most elaborate chronicles of Irish culinary history. His depiction of an extravagant world of ample milk and honey, complete with a bizarre horse made of assorted food items, adds a whimsical touch.
The narrative on Early Modern Ireland’s food history commences with Fionnán O’Connor shedding light on the evolution of distilling in Ireland and its association with both healing practices and feudal cordiality. This is succeeded by John McCafferty’s exposition on the significance of fish in the seventeenth century, predominantly within the Franciscan community. Next, Toby Barnard takes the audience on a gastronomic journey across different social hierarchies in eighteenth-century Ireland, elaborated further by Hugh Douglas Hamilton’s sketches from Cries of Dublin. Danielle Clarke unlocks the gastronomic ethos of the Parsons family through her review of the manuscript recipe books found at Birr Castle, providing unprecedented insights into three centuries of family cuisine. Tara McConnell, in the conclusive chapter of this section, explores the culinary world of Jonathan Swift, the celebrated satirist, essayist, poet, and clergyman. Swift’s deliberations on food and dining habits, along with the influence of his health issues on his choice of diet and moderation of food and drink, are revealing.
In the next section, titled Developments in Food Supply, Technology, and Trade, Grace Neville gleans insights into the gastronomic inclinations and practices of Daniel O’Connell, a prominent Irish history figure, through an examination of his personal letters. She gives light to his endeavours to mitigate hunger crises, cholera epidemics, and food scarcities in his native region, the Iveragh Peninsula (Uíbh Ráthach) in southwest Kerry.
The enhanced postal system, given a significant boost by steam engine advancements, greatly benefited O’Connell’s communications. This transformative technology, powering both steamships and railways, significantly increased the delivery of food packages in and out of Ireland from 1845 to 1960, a subject analysed by John Mulcahy. Turkeys, geese or chickens could be slaughtered and sent from rural areas in Ireland, reaching any of England’s industrial cities within 18 hours. As a result of the large volume of dried fruit sent from the United States through packages at Christmas 1944, a local Limerick newspaper whimsically suggested the ‘spotted dog’ would seem to be ‘barking in an American accent’ that festive season.
In the 19th century, Irish butter reached international popularity, which is the topic of the ensuing two sections. Claudia Kinmonth meticulously explores the domestic creation of butter, utilising the dash churn, together with the related cultural and folklore aspects that surrounded it before cream separators rendered home churning economically unviable. Patrick Doyle details the introduction of this revolutionary separator technology and the subsequent emergence of the co-operative movement in Ireland, making mention of influential figures like Horace Plunkett and the contributions of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS).
Within his Co Derry childhood memories, Seamus Heaney poetically revisits the magical process of homemade butter creation, likening the butter to ‘coagulated sunlight’ collected in a tin strainer appearing as ‘gilded gravel in the bowl’.
The book’s final but one part titled Food, Folklore, Foclóirí, and Digital Humanities starts with an impressively pictorial section on Irish hearth furniture by Clodagh Doyle, which reflects on the abundant folklore embedded in the cooking artifacts, traditions and methods associated with open-fire cooking in Ireland, prior to the introduction of rural and city electrification. Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Dónall Ó Braonáin emphasise the myriad applications drawing upon Irish-language sources for food history research and underline that due to digitisation advances, many of these sources including Dictionaries, the Schools’ Folklore Collection, and the Placenames Database, are now universally accessible online.
Patricia Lysaght delivers an intriguing exploration of food rituals at wakes and funerals in the 20th century, making use of the deeply textural works of Tomás Ó Criomhthain. The evocative scenery of Ó Criomhthain’s native Blasket Islands attracted numerous international folklorists. The final chapter in this section, penned by Jonny Dillon and Ailbe van de Heide, traces the establishment of the Irish Folklore Commission. They talk about James Hamilton Delargy’s (Séamus Ó Duilearga) transformative six-month trip to Sweden in 1928 where he met Åke Campbell (1891–1957), leading to a newfound understanding of practices related to food production, transformation, and consumption.
Detailing the variety of collections available at the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin, the chapter also touches on the Urban Folklore Project (1979–1980). The digitisation of the Schools’ Collection, alongside the Audio and Photographic Collections, offer a valuable resource for food-related research into Ireland’s past.
The last part of the book, The Development of Modern Irish Food and Identity, covers the past century. Dorothy Cashman discloses the identity of the cryptic writer of Cookery Notes, a best-selling cookbook for over 50 years, often used in education and household environments. The influential figures and publications of the Irish Domestic Science/Economy movement also come up for discussion.
Ian Miller’s chapter details horrifying accounts of death due to starvation in the freshly founded Irish Free State, echoing the darkest days of the preceding century. In a chapter focusing on the 1930s and 1940s, Bryce Evans delves into the economic war, the introduction of rationing and the pressure on Irish farmers during the Emergency era, where they were threatened with imprisonment if fields weren’t tilled.
Douglas Hyde’s plan to organise a sequence of official dinners aimed at unifying politicians, civil servants and other figures with conflicting views from the Civil War was abruptly stopped by the eruption of the second World War. Elaine Mahon provides a comprehensive study of this in her chapter, ‘ “The President requests the Pleasure”: Dining with the Irish Head of State 1922–1940′. The chapter focuses on how the infant nation started to form diplomatic etiquette to cater to overseas dignitaries, national leaders, and esteemed visitors during the initial twenty years following independence. By using food and the grand Throne Room within Dublin Castle, de Valera set a royal scene for state feasts.
Caitríona Clear analyses the famous works and recipe books of Maura Laverty. The Irish Press journalist, Anna Kelly, labelled Laverty as a writer who was inclined to incorporate elements related to food, even while discussing unrelated topics. In her recipe book titled Kind Cooking, she famously associated four significant elements to Ireland – WB Yeats, boiled potatoes in their jackets, Barry Fitzgerald, and soda bread, with the latter being the most significant. According to her, Irish food was as noteworthy as its poets, authors, and performing artists.
The last pair of chapters in the book touch upon recent shifts in Irish gastronomic culture over the past sixty years. The gradual metamorphosis of food offerings in pubs is expertly dissected by Brian J Murphy. This spans the infrequent crisps bag or toasted sandwich, moving onto the comprehensive carveries of the 1980s, leading up to the emergence of gastropubs.
The culminating chapter of this publication sheds light on the life and influential impact of Myrtle Allen, renowned for her association with Ballymaloe House. The writer, Margaret Connolly, highlights Mrs. Allen’s groundbreaking approach to implementing local, seasonal, and sustainable food practices; a concept that is widely applauded today, but was at odds with the popularity of instant meals during the time of her actual practice. Mrs. Allen, one of the initiators of the Euro-Toques in 1986, played a significant role in championing European culinary traditions, a mission that began within the confines of her own Irish home. She indirectly contributed to the evolution of the Nordic Food Movement and was audacious enough to open an Irish restaurant in the dazzling city of Paris during the 1980s. Her impact in the sphere of Irish culinary history over the past fifty years is undeniable.
This multifaceted publication is set to become a pivotal piece within the expanding domains of food studies, Irish studies, and the history of Irish food. It is also designed to engage the casual reader curious to explore facets of Ireland’s gastronomic history and heritage. In the introduction to the 2015 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy’s special issue on Food and Drink in Ireland, Prof Stephen Mennell observed the futility of trying to articulate an Irish national cuisine, asserting that since the 1980s, the era of national cuisines had come to a close.
He noted that in the 1980s, the ubiquity of fast food, large-scale catering, ethnic eateries – coupled with the globalization of culinary practices – dismantled traditional norms of cuisine, not just within Ireland but widespread across Europe and beyond. At the peak of the culinary world, more value was given to the ingenuity of individual chefs, rather than their alignment to national traditions. He ended his observation stating that Ireland, parallel to all these changes, was moving ahead with modern times.
While numerous chapters of Irish food history are yet to be penned, this collection neither proclaims comprehensive coverage nor, contrarily, scantiness. Instead, alongside enriching previous works, it serves as a valuable primer to both the newcomers and the seasoned researchers exploring the vast ambit of Ireland’s culinary history, creating an impetus for more comprehensive studies of our gastronomic past that trace both its older and recent roots.
The continuous evolution of food habits underlines that the various elements and circumstances of contemporary meals, greatly influenced by current matters like warfare and environmental changes, mould the food history of the future.
“Irish Food History: A Companion”, a publication by the Royal Irish Academy and EUt+ Academic Press, is due for release this evening at the Royal Irish Academy located in Dublin.