The Irish Homecoming: Ireland’s cafe culture - catching up with the ladies and current events

April Drew enjoying Ireland's cafes, both new and old

One thing is for certain, Ireland isn’t short of little coffee shops and cafes. The recession may have taken a big bite out of the hospitality industry, but Irish people are slow to forgo their cup of tea and cake.

Since my return home to Ireland I’ve frequented many of these cafes. Some of them were around before my departure to the Big Apple.

There are the more traditional cafes that house many delectable goodies, have a basic enough beverage menu mainly consisting of tea, coffee or a mineral (soda), and their clientele are, for the most part, old age pensioners (sometimes accompanied by their daughters).

Other places popped up while I was living it up in New York. The more recent cafes are ultra-modern, have an expansive and fancy drinks menu (espressos, macchiatos and caffe lattes) and are frequented by women who fall into the middle to upper-class category.

I enjoy both types of cafés.  I like the feel of Ireland from the more traditional coffee shops, and I enjoy the newer additions for their likeness to New York coffee houses.

But the part I enjoy the most is sitting at my computer, inconspicuously glancing around to see the body language of the customers at other tables. And more often than not I get carried away from my own work to listen in to the sometimes very interesting conversations of others.

Today is no exception. After I dropped our two children (Colum, 21 months, and Sadie, six months) off to day care I headed to work for a few hours. I had a half day – much welcomed after a fun-filled weekend at a bachelorette party in Kerry at the weekend.

Before I headed to Lidl to do my weekly shop I stopped off at one of the super trendy coffee shops in Limerick for a hot chocolate and a nose.  Women lunched in groups. The average age of the ladies around me was mid forties to sixties.

Life has been good to them. Their style is straight out of a magazine. Despite the rain outside and the chill in the air the trendy scarfs loosely thrown around their necks were fashion statements.

Most wore dresses, or tailored pants, complimentary colored and styled tops, and their hair was neat and tidy. Their shoes simple and classic. There was a hint of Stepford wives from this crowd of ladies who lunch.

I was sitting in a pair of jeans, high heels and a white shirt. I was underdressed.

Twelve tables were occupied when I arrived, and 10 of those were full of little groups of women (the smallest group was four). The other two tables housed couples; at least I’m assuming they were couples.

I overhear the ladies at the table nearest to me discuss current news topics, a sale in women’s dress store Brown Thomas and an upcoming wedding of one of their daughters. The gentle wrinkles on their face make me believe they are all in their fifties, some possibly sixties. There are five of them.

In the past few weeks there have been many horrific crimes that have gripped our nation.  On Saturday a man’s body was discovered shoved into a wardrobe of a house in Dublin. He had a horrific death by stabbing.

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Nster.com