Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [43]
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WHERE TO EAT & DRINK
It’s easy to eat well in the cities and you’ll be able to find any kind of cuisine your taste buds desire, from Irish seafood to foreign fusion. Along the west coast, you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to seafood and local produce.
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MICROBREWERIES FIGHT BACK
Up until the 1980s the outlook for Ireland’s brewing industry looked even bleaker than it did for its food. Sure, everyone knows about Guinness, but over the previous 100 years it had developed at the expense of hundreds of smaller breweries. Ironically, Ireland has clung on to its reputation as a country with a strong beer heritage, but until recently the modern reality was severely lacking – all Irish beer came from only three breweries, none of which is currently Irish owned.
The experience of the Carlow Brewing Company is typical of the revival of interest in microbrewing. Says founder Seamus O’Hara, ‘I had the opportunity to travel in Europe, and it opened my eyes to the fact that there was a lot more to beer than the two or three brands available in Ireland. I went to the US and the microbrewery scene there that had started up in the 1980s led us to believe that we could set up a small brewery and be commercially successful too.’ In the mid-’90s other small breweries started up and a pioneering industry developed.
The commercial environment was loaded against new companies, though, with high customs and excise levied against the smaller breweries. ‘Many breweries were driven by passion and an interest in brewing, and we were all a bit wide-eyed about the commercial side of the business,’ says Seamus. Some breweries have fallen by the wayside since those pioneering first days, and now there are nine left from an original 12.
Carlow Brewing Company survived those early years by exporting up to 75% of its produce. ‘Overseas, people are more used to trying different beers, so there was always going to be a market for a genuine Irish beer at the speciality end in terms of quality and flavour.’ As with food, extensive lobbying of the industry regulators reaped rewards, and the excise has now been reduced by 50% for small producers. The market is still dominated by the big breweries, but people’s attitudes are changing: the number of speciality beers coming into the country and being produced are educating beer drinkers and broadening the market. ‘The Irish beer drinker is more discerning and demanding now that they’re aware there are other choices. It’s similar to what happened with Irish food – there’s just a bit of a lag with beer.’
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If you ask a local for ‘somewhere to eat’, you’ll probably be directed to his or her favourite pub because, outside the cities, the best place for a feed, particularly lunch, is often the pub. Virtually every drinking house will offer the simple fare of soup, potatoes, vegetables, steaks and chicken. Some extend themselves and have separate dining rooms where you can get fresh soda bread and hearty meals, like shepherd’s pie, casseroles and seafood dishes.
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A SNIFTER OF WHISKEY HISTORY
Nobody really knows whether whiskey was first made in Scotland or Ireland, but for the purpose of this book we’ll just go along with the Irish version of the story. Whiskey has been made here since the 10th century, when monks brought the art of distillation back from their ecclesiastical jaunts to the Middle East. In Arabia, the technique had been used to distil perfume from flowers, but the monks evidently saw a very different use for it. As the legend maintains, they soon developed a method of distilling whiskey from barley. The monks then fiercely protected their secret for several centuries.
Incidentally, Irish monks did have a solid reputation as hard drinkers. Monastic protocol limited monks to a mere gallon (4.5L) of ale a day. Another rule insisted that they be able to chant the Psalms clearly, so we might