Maybe 100 years ago,

Clara - I thought that oats were a staple of the Irish diet; oh well, it was an awesome breakfast anyhow, authentic or not.

DanCinTx-creme fraiche, fruit and coffee arent all that Irish!

Irish food is now just a nice mix of other nations food. Theres no such thing as ''irish food'' just good quality food.

What about the oats? I had one of life's better breakfasts at Bewley's on Grafton St - a bowl of oats with crème fraîche and fruit. Add the beautiful toasted soda bread and a great cup of coffee - breakfast nirvana.

The Irish have quite a lot to add to the culinary world and indeed the primary nutriment milk and its by products provide some of the most intersting reading into the cultural nature of the Irish and Celts at large Butter churns from ireland are different than those in central Euroope but bear a striking resemblance to those used in Mongolia However the Ceili was often used to gather together people to churn butter in a pigs bladder The bladder was filled with mlilk and then either to music or to lilting the belly went from one to the other auntil it started to turn. If only the Irish of the 1845 period had used the natural goodness of the land and sea they may have prevented so much death . Works have existed on communal farming long before the Famine and yet those in the educative process concentrated on latin and greek instead of studies on brassicas or Onions or grains which allowed many French communities to avoid disette and disaster We may admire a classical link to understanding but the cost was horrendous and wanton on the part of the "educators" namely the clergy. Another case which should have opened the eyes of the ordinary guy in the street to the brainwashing effect of our elders and betters and we can see it even now in the Kenny government where the administration hold the key to the success of the Kenny Doctine and not the guy who promotes it. The ruling class of middle and higher ranking civil servants , those who may know Latin and Greek yet again will administer in their own way and watch the imminent decay irish society all with the intention to protect themsleves as the clergy had done before the famine What use in knowing of Ceasar's gallic wars when the only plate of food they could think of was potatoes

Carrickcourt, that wasnt too long after the famine in fairness. The diet has changed since then.

An account of a distant late cousin of her growing up on her family's farm in Co. Cavan in the late 1890's and early 1900's talks of rarely eating meat, maybe some chicken on a rare Sunday. The diet was mostly potatoes, cabbage, and dairy products.