Sally's blog

There's a new social medium making waves, and it's Irish-owned, based in Ireland and conceived entirely with Irish businesses in mind. Like many business owners, creator of Phlok (that's what it's called) Paul Graham found social media to be time consuming, hard to measure in terms of the return on this investment of time, yet a burden that's unavoidable for any consumer-facing business.

We reckon that the classy confidence exuded by the smoked fish products from Duncannon Smokehouse can most likely be attributed to the fact that this family firm have been smoking fish for forty years now. But, whatever the reason, the classy confidence is evident in everything Kai and Lee Ronan’s firm does – the packaging and graphics are superlative, the sourcing is meticulous, and the flavours are subtle, with the use of smoke deftly controlled to give the fish a blessing of smoke rather than a blanket of smoke.

It sounds like the daftest thing to say but, sometimes, what’s outside a place to stay can seem almost more important than what’s inside a place to stay.
Take White Cottages, Jackie and Joe O’Connor’s gorgeous house in Skerries. The house is a peach and, if you stay here, you get the equivalent of a twofer: the house and its yummy design, and its views out across Dublin Bay. And those views, and the way in which the house has been cleverly designed to maximise them, are the secret.

In May 1987 Jared Diamond, then of the UCLA medical school and, later, the world-famous author of the book “Guns, Germs and Steel”, wrote a paper with the bold title of “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”.
Say wha! Wow! Now what could that be? Inventing the nuclear bomb? Kim Kardashian? The cronut? Mullet haircuts? AC/DC?
Nope, Mr Diamond's Worst Mistake was... the invention of agriculture.
You read that right: the invention of agriculture.

Hmmm, do you think there was something fishy, something sinister, about the World Food Prize being awarded to Monsanto?
I certainly did. After all, why should Monsanto get the WFP when they have only given $380,000.00 dollars to the sponsorship of the WFP?
Surely the most deserving recipient of the WFP would have been the Iowa Corn Growers Association, who contributed a healthy $425,000.00 in sponsorship.

To paraphrase a line from the late Steve Jobs' showstopping unveiling of the first generation iPhone - any individual would be proud to have been associated with one amazing hotel, but to have stood at the helm of two.....

So it is with Adriaan Bartels, manager at Sheen Falls in Kenmare when it was regarded by many as the best hotel in the British Isles, and now at the helm at The Cliff House in Ardmore, one of the most stunning hotels in the country.

Finding myself in Dublin on a Sunday with not much to do seemed as good a chance as any to try Fade St Social for the first time. I call by early and book a table for 1pm when they start serving. On my return I'm greeted by my first name and shown to a table facing the open kitchen.

This autumn sees the publication of Extreme Greens: Understanding Seaweed by Sally McKenna.

Extreme Greens describes and pictures the most common seaweeds in Ireland, and gives over 80 recipes for using seaweed for both cooking and cosmetics.

The Kelly Kettle has been produced by the Kelly family from County Mayo for four generations. It began life as a fishing kettle, but has been embraced by kayakers, mountaineers, and adventurers worldwide. It comes as a surprise to many who know the kettle, that it comes from the North West coast of Ireland.
In this video, we talk to both Patrick Kelly, of the Kelly family, and kayaker Jasper Winn, who used the kettle whilst circumnavigating Ireland for his book "Paddle, A Long Way Around Ireland."

ME, BIG FOOT. YOU, HEREFORD.