For anyone interested, I will be on The Right Hook on Newstalk at around 5:20 pm today (the show is in Tralee), talking about Irish foods.
PS: Below is a photo of me handing out ice cream to George Hook today. That’s Senator Mark Daley on the right.
Kieran
My apologies!
I’m so sorry about the site disruption here over the last days. I was trying to migrate the site to a new server and failed miserably. The good people at Blacknight are helping now, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it without any more down time.
Thanks so much for bearing with me!
Irish Foods Under Threat
On Saturday, the Irish Times had an article about how Irish brands were going to start disappearing from the shelves of Tesco as the supermarket chain wants to have Irish shops mirror their British shops in terms of offerings. They will start removing Irish products from shops close to the border and in at least one shop in Cork. It is also understood that if successful, Tesco will do the same across all their shops in the Republic.
It’s a story that should have caught the attention of anyone who loves food in Ireland, since the ripples of such a decision would be immense. Tesco own around 23% of the Irish food market, and the impact upon Irish food producers (and Irish employment) in losing such a huge chunk of market share could be catastrophic. According to Bord Bia, the average spend of Irish people on imported foods has risen 50% since 2000. With Tesco dumping Irish brands, that percentage would skyrocket as a large segment of Irish consumers would lose easy access to Irish brands. There could be many Irish food companies that would not survive losing such a large percentage of their sales.
I’ve already written about the web of connectivity here, and I think it’s time to stop pretending that the decisions we make in our spending habits have no effect of the Irish economy and jobs. I also think we need more pride when it comes to Irish foods. I don’t know where the government stands in all of this, but they would be very wise to take action, or they will be complicit in giving us a poorer selection of Irish food items and facing even longer dole queues. Unfortunately, given their track record, I wouldn’t have faith in them doing much of anything.
Perhaps a better plan would be to have a more activist spirit here in Ireland among consumers. Compared to my experience of living in other countries, we tend to meekly accept many things that come at us (with a lot of complaining) instead of fighting back. The power is in our hands. If enough customers vote with their feet or otherwise make their displeasure known, it would put a very quick stop to Tesco’s plans before we lose Irish food companies and the jobs that go with them.
Just a little note: We do not sell into Tesco, so we have no direct stake except possibly losing Irish foods we love.
Feile na Bealtaine Parade, 2009
Here are some photos I took of the Feile na Bealtaine parade in Dingle today. It’s really wonderful to see the care that goes into it. It gets more elaborate every year! Here’s also a video my brother took:
Basel Fastnacht Comes to Dingle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc8vhRGmaEI
There’s a good buzz around town as Feile na Bealtaine is now in full swing in Dingle. I spent yesterday evening with a group over from the Basel Fastnacht in Switzerland. We have a relationship with them because the John Street Wren travelled over to Basel some years ago, and they hosted us as sort of a musical exchange (our tradition is whistles and drums, theirs is piccolos and drum, and both have costumes on the day). It’s interchanges like this that make Feile so special.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR3tiClpU-gTechnorati tags: Dingle, basel, festival, bealtaine, feile, fastnacht
A Reminder to Vote
Just a little reminder that there are only three days left to vote for the Irish Internet Association’s Net Visionary Awards.
I do have an interest in this, since I’ve been shortlisted. The winner will be decided by votes from people such as you, so please click here and have your say! (Closing date for votes is May 1st.) Thanks!
Technorati Tags: Irish, internet, award, net visionary
A West Cork Jaunt
I had a long but enjoyable day today in West Cork, visiting customers and chasing down a few leads. It’s really a remarkably beautiful part of the country. My first port of call was Barleycove Beach Hotel in Goleen. Under new ownership, it looks like it will be a tasty port of call for anyone travelling the area, with a chef trained in a Michelin starred restaurant and a real commitment to fresh, local ingredients. I can tell you the ice cream ain’t bad, either ;-). Below is a little video of Martin, the owner, and the blue flag beach.
I ended up in Kinsale, visiting the new Blue Haven Gourmet Store, that stocks our ice cream.
I also met with someone about a scooping cabinet. So, there’s a possibility there will be Murphys ice cream cones to be had by this summer in Kinsale!
Technorati tags: Cork, barleycove, food, kinsale, ireland
A Special Day
Today, I was in Killarney as the Special Olympics Torch arrived. We had been contacted by the Kerry Stars, our local branch, and we were happy to offer help.
We’ll be raising money for them over the weekend, in both our Dingle and Killarney shops, offering a free extra scoop of ice cream and asking for a donation in return. So far, our customers have been generous, and we hope our little effort helps make things a bit easier for the organisers.
Today, as the Olympians arrived into town, surrounded by a phalanx of volunteers, the crowd wasn’t anyway as big as it should have been. We were there, handing out ice cream, along with maybe 30 other people.
We have been involved with a few things having to do with people with intellectual disabilties – Camphill, which is well worth checking out, and of course the Special Olympics when they were held in Ireland. Each time I meet them I feel graced, as I did today, when I watched the torch come up New Street and saw the joy of the athletes. Each time, even if I’m handing our ice cream, I feel that I’m the lucky one for our meeting – that I’ve been given a little give of love.
There was lots of that this afternoon, and I have to give full credit to the Gardai, who have clearly invested a lot in the Special Olympics, and their involvement was great to see.
Today was a good day.
By the way, for anyone interested, there’s a brilliantly-written Irish blog I’ve been reminded of again, by a Down’s dad, called “Our Jacob.”
Technorati tags: Special Olympics, Killarney, torch, Kerry Stars