How the Bishop and the Restaurateur use Twitter

I read the tweet around 3.30am. We were awake to witness the results of the American Election. I tweeted right back. Then I wondered what the Bishop of Cork might think of me tweeting him at 3.30am. But I can never resist a lunch invitation.

We met the next day, @b2dac @HarrysDonal and myself, @McKennasGuides. Our location was @Nash19Cork.

The food was excellent, we drank some wine, shared food, gossiped and giggled. Watching us, you wouldn’t know that we had hardly ever met, and then only formally. Donal and the Bishop have Donegal ties, but, we all agreed, our friendship would never have got off the starting blocks without Twitter. All the other ways we could have communicated would have been official and unspontaneous.

Both @HarrysDonal and @b2dac use twitter for work and play. @Nash19Cork uses it to get her message across too. After the meal chefs @PamelaKelly83 and @Tasty_D both came up to say hello, and tell us about the meal they had just cooked for us. During the meal @ummera tweeted he wished he could have been a fly on the wall for our lunch. “Don’t worry, you’re on the menu” tweeted back @b2dac. I tweeted a photo. @HarrysDonal didn’t tweet, but that was only because his new iPhone 5 needed charging for the long journey back to Donegal and so far they haven’t invented iPhone 5 car chargers. Afterwards he tweeted "FAB LUNCH! Loving Cork but visa running out!"

Bishop Paul is a super foodie. Like me, he often tweets his meals, and often these take place in @Nash19Cork. We all get hungry reading about his breakfasts, as well as his formal clergy dinners. I asked him about social media and his liturgical role, and he praised it for being a useful mechanism to reach people who are vulnerable, as well as its ability to pass on information and keep in touch. A Bishop is, after all first and foremost a communicator, and social media is one of the most piercing forms of communication.

@b2dac seems to have no fear of controversy, and it often comes via Twitter. I noticed recently some fierce exchanges after the terrible tragedy of #savita, and, after being the subject of so much abuse on Twitter himself, I once read a tweet that he would renounce Twitter for ever. No worries, he came back, lured by his friends who missed his mixture of craic and conscience.

I had thought @b2dac might be something to to with diocesan of Cork, but it’s actually the wrapper name given to him by the Cork kids - Bishop of Cork, B 2 da C, geddit?!

The major controversy with twitter, shared by both @Harrysdonal and @b2dac is unfollowing people. It causes hurt and offence, but it’s a fairly necessary part of making your inbox readable. So both shrug it off sadly. A young man attempted suicide soon after @b2dac unfollowed him. Of course there was no connection, but for someone who uses the medium to reach out to people, it was difficult.

Our meal was a shared plate of goodies from @Nash19Cork - their own free-range chicken liver pate, @ummera smoked salmon and chicken, pork from @Crowesfarm, black and white pudding from @mccarthykanturk and @MyButcherTim, pumpkin chutney and lentil gravy. Mushrooms, I suspect from @irishshiitake and Cheese from @CashelBlue and @CooleeneyFarm. @B2dac had the soup, which was fennel and mushroom.

Next Cork spiced beef from @TomDurcanMeats, with rooty accompaniments for our Donegal visitor (@Nash19Cork are masters of turnip). Grilled beef salad with blue cheese and onion rings for @b2dac (@Nash19Cork are masters of the grill) and an @ummera smoked salmon and leek tart with @CooleeneyFarm cheese for me. We didn’t have puddings, but @Nash19Cork brought out her famous plum pudding (@Nash19Cork are masters at plum pudding).