Beyond Sustenance

Images

Image 1. The Coffee Cart in Penneys, Mary Street, Dublin.

Image 2. The Virgin Mary Bar, Capel Street, Dublin.

Image 3. The Old Hardware Community Café, Narraghmore, Co. Kildare.

Image 4. The Hatch Bar, Hazelhatch, Co Kildare.

Image 5. Queen Elisabeth and Prince Philip, The Gravity Bar, Dublin.

Image 6. M. J. Murphy’s Butchers, 50 Bulfin Road, Inchicore, Dublin.

Image 7. Five Strands of the Fourth Space model.

Image 8. Cullen’s Family Butchers, Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow.

Image 9. Grangecon Kitchen, Grangecon, Co. Wicklow.

Image 10. Dilly Dally’s Coffee Shop in Co. Kildare.

Image 11. Maudies, Rathgormack Co. Waterford.

Preface

By Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

The Irish language saying is túísce deoch ná scéal, literally meaning ‘a drink precedes a story’, incapsulates a number of long-standing Irish traditions and cultural practices. Visit any Irish home and the first act of the host is often to put on the kettle or more recently, to warm up the Nespresso machine or open a bottle of wine. Hospitality has been central to Irish culture for millennia and those who shirked their obligations to the stranger or the visitor faced potential mockery or vilification. This same age-old tradition of hospitality ensures that a ham sandwich, some cheese and crackers, or at least a plate of biscuits are soon provided to visitors so that people would not consider the tea alone ‘too wet’! The Mrs Doyle character in Father Ted is the epitome of this phenomenon, albeit bringing it to its comic extreme.

Irish poets (filí) and bards were both highly respected and feared by Gaelic chieftains who would provide them with lavish feasts. The Brehon Laws outlined the various obligations of guests and hosts in Ancient Ireland. The briugu or hospitaler, the wealthy land and stock owners, were the legal representatives of the institution of hospitality, which may have been the means for a non-noble to advance socially. The late eleventh- / early twelfth-century Middle Irish tale Aislinge Meic Con Glinne tells of a young scholar who was inhospitably welcomed by the monks of Cork, and how he took revenge on their chief Abbot, Manchín, through satire. Within the Christian tradition, there was always the possibility that a stranger or visitor seeking lodgings or alms might be Our Lord. The poorest in society were often the most generous, as Sigerson Clifford noted in his poem / song The Ballad of the Tinker’s Wife:

This book by Dr Brian Murphy is aptly titled, as it clearly illustrates how the food and drink culture of Ireland goes far beyond mere sustenance. Food and drink are powerful signifiers of culture and class, and a person’s choices reveal their views, beliefs, assumptions, prejudices, and personalities. Food, as noted by anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, is a ‘highly condensed social fact’1 while Michael Dietler, another anthropologist, considers alcohol ‘as a special class of food with psychoactive effects’.² We eat and drink to celebrate special occasions; we often consider food and drink as a reward, and we turn to them at times, for comfort and relief, whether alone or in company. This has never been truer than during the seismic shift that has occurred in Irish society from a food and beverage perspective in the last half century. This is a time with which both the author and I are well-familiar, having both passed our own half centuries. Rural electrification was completed during this period. Dining out in restaurants moved from ←xii | xiii→being an occasional treat for special occasions to a regular past-time. Wine was predominantly Liebfraumilch ordered by colour (Black Tower, Green Label, or Blue Nun), whereas today Irish citizens have become prolific imbibers of both New World and Old World wines, and more recently of organic, biodynamic and natural wines. The nature of how we shop, prepare food, cook, dine and transmit these cultural and social traditions to the next generations has also been radically transformed.

The roots of change in Irish society stem back further still to a number of landmark decisions, be it Donogh O’ Malley’s speech announcing free universal secondary education in 1966, or Ireland’s entry to the European Economic Community in 1973. These decisions, among others, meant that the young highly educated professionals who emigrated during the 1980s had very different prospects compared to their relations who may have emigrated in the 1950s. Many of these same young professionals returned ←xiii | xiv→in the early 1990s with both increased self-confidence and the lived experience of continental and world cuisines, having worked abroad and travelled more widely than any previous generation of Irish people. Sport proved to be another significant factor in transforming the Irish psyche. The success of the Irish soccer team in the European Championships in 1988 and in the World Cup in 1990 rekindled national pride and self-worth. For many, it was the first time that they could proudly wave the tricolour without sectarian connotations. This was psychologically liberating. All these factors contributed to the phenomenon known as the ‘Celtic Tiger’. The signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and subsequent relative peace on the island of Ireland for the last twenty-five years, was an unimaginable dream at times during the height of the Troubles. Even in the current era of Brexit, there is cross border ‘all-island’ cooperation taking place within agriculture and tourism, and the whiskey industry. This is hugely positive.

Drawing on the author’s own rich vein of publications and those of the rising generation of food and drink scholars, this book provides a thoroughly up-to-date and cutting-edge picture of Irish food and drink culture in the post-pandemic period. The key theme is local, but the depth of the research is global. There are lessons drawn from distillers in France and Scotland, from shoemakers in Puerto Rico, wine marketing boards in Australia, but also the wisdom and further exploration of the concept of Irish terroir, first developed by the late Tomás Clancy. The Traditional Irish ←xiv | xv→Butcher Shop chapter notes that ‘to make use of a truly successful Fourth Space strategy, one must not be driven solely by the desire for monetary success. The true passion of the individual artisan operator must shine through.’ These sentiments mirror and reinforce the keynote lecture given by Professor Finbarr Bradley at the 2022 Dublin Gastronomy Symposium, whose left-brain message was to follow one’s passion and be authentic, and that financial success would be one of the outcomes of staying true to one’s core beliefs.

There is a strong beverage studies slant to this book, which is not unexpected from a scholar who completed a beverage-based doctorate. The role of place and story, which underpinned Murphy’s PhD, is also further developed. Many of the chapters originated in conference papers at either the Association of Franco-Irish Studies (AFIS) or the Dublin Gastronomy Symposium (DGS). They have all been thoroughly updated and are newly contextualised with the autoethnographic introductions. They are joined by new scholarship around the rise of coffee-shops and social gastronomy. Recent doctoral research by Tara McConnell has explored the social significance of ‘Claret’ in Ireland during the long eighteenth century. Further research on food and drink in Irish poetry and songs discusses punch, tea, toddy, scailtín, and negus – a hot drink of port, sugar, lemon and spice. History shows that the phenomenon of distilleries emerging ‘phoenix-like’ out of the ashes of a once prominent sector in Ireland is actually a modern-day renaissance. In 1823, Ireland had no less than eighty-six distilleries in operation. Up until recently, it has been dominated by a single player. Research on the history of whiskey and its antecedents by Fionnán O’Connor has led to innovation in the industry and to changes within European legislation. Postgraduate Masters and Doctoral studies in the beverage area in Ireland is gaining momentum, with Brian Murphy and colleagues in Technological University Dublin at its core. This fine publication will be a valuable resource for all such scholars and for students of Irish Studies in particular and general readers alike. Drink, as mentioned at the beginning of this Preface, often precedes a story. The story of food and drink culture in Ireland, however, is fully enriched by this collection which goes far beyond sustenance. Our ancestors were famous for deoch an dorais, the literal ‘drink for the door’ or the parting glass. My parting ←xv | xvi→thought is to wish this book and its author the success it deserves, and to advise its readers to ‘drink deep and be silent’ and to savour each chapter’s gentle nuances like an Irish pot-still whiskey or a high-end coffee experience. Bain sult as!

Acknowledgements

Over the course of this project’s development, I have incurred debts to a great many individuals. Apart from those mentioned here, there are countless others who have listened patiently while I ran ideas by them and who helped steer my opinion on many of the issues mentioned in this book. The following people have had an important influence in terms of both contribution and encouragement: Dr Patricia Medcalf, Raymond Keaney, Paul Linehan and of course my ever-tolerant wife and proofreader Gráinne and our three children Lorcán, Seanán and Sadhbh. My relationship with my publisher, Peter Lang, has always been a congenial and productive one, thanks in no small part to the sterling efforts of Tony Mason (Senior Commissioning Editor). Special mention must also go to Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire who kindly wrote the Preface to this work. As a powerhouse of gastronomic studies, Máirtín has always been encouraging and generous with his time. Finally, I would like to pay special thanks and tribute to Dr Eamon Maher, Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies and General Editor of the Reimagining Ireland book series. As a great many of his colleagues already know, Eamon’s vast and impeccable academic record speaks for itself. However, I would like to thank him, in particular, for all he has done to encourage my own academic journey over the last fifteen years. Eamon has that very rare quality of quietly encouraging research enthusiasm and output among people who don’t yet recognise that they have something of value to contribute to the academic community. On their behalf, and on mine, I say thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement down through the years.