Tuesday 19 February 2013

Brehon Sunday lunch - From our family to yours!!



Although popularity of the whole family heading out for Sunday lunch together has never wavered, recently it has taken on a new, classier and more home away from home feel.  People choose the venue with care to ensure all the family’s needs are met.  The Brehon Bar has moved with the time and is offering home style dining in The Brehon Bar.
From 2-4 on Sunday afternoons the Brehon offer your choice of roast cooked to your liking, choose from a selection of chicken, lamb, pork or beef.  This is then served with all the trimmings, including a choice of potatoes and vegetables, gravy and of course not forgetting a bottle of wine.  All this will be served to your table where you can carry on the traditions of home and carve yourself at the table. 
Sunday Lunch at The Brehon Bar is the perfect excuse to gather your family, extended family or friends together and enjoy a delicious lunch of locally sourced ingredients handcrafted by the wonderful Chefs at The Brehon Bar.

Lunch for 4 people:

Roast Chicken: €45.00
Roast Pork: €45.00
Roast Lamb: €50.00
Roast Beef: €50.00

Pre booking is essential – please contact 064 6630700 before 1pm on Saturday.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

The Story of Kerry

Right out on the edge of Europe, where Ireland’s highest mountains dip down into the wild Atlantic Ocean, is the ancient Kingdom of Kerry.

This is the furthest west you can go in all of Ireland. “Next parish, Manhattan” they say here. And it’s partly this far-flung feel – away from the rest of the world in Ireland’s beautiful South West corner – that makes it so appealing. It’s a land where traditional Irish culture thrives, with Ireland’s largest Gaeltacht town and thousands speaking gaeilge – Irish – as their first language. But you won’t feel out of place.

The people of Kerry will welcome you: they’ll tell you “fáilte romhat isteach – you’re most welcome here”. They’ll know you’ve come a long way to soak up the beauty, the history, the culture, the fresh air, the adventure … and the craic. For this is where Irish tourism began. And it’s where the Irish themselves love to come for a grand time. There’s good food, fine pubs, easy banter and live music to be found right across Kerry in lively towns and tiny settlements.

This is great walking country, with its glacial lakes, crags and cliffs, and the greenest of fields and valleys, dotted with old stone walls and historic sites. It’s where Ireland’s only native wild red deer roam in the country’s first great National Park. And where rare white-tailed sea eagles soar overhead.

Three huge mountainous peninsulas – Dingle, Iveragh and Beara – stretch out west into the Atlantic, circled by tourist routes (the best-known is the Ring of Kerry) and long-distance walking trails. Out along the Kerry coast, there are surfing beaches, and golf links courses among the dunes. Kerry’s islands tell mysterious and dramatic stories.

There’s Skellig Michael, a jagged ocean crag where early Christian monks built a remarkable hermitage – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and place of pilgrimage. There’s the Blaskets, a lonely archipelago where Ireland’s greatest born-storytellers lived – now an emblem of the Irish story of emigration.

There’s Valentia, an island where the earliest fossil footprints in the world were found, and where the first transatlantic cable came ashore – home to wealthy technocrats of the 19th century. And there’s a famous inland island too: Innisfallen in Lough Leane, the lake of learning – where the Annals, telling the earliest history of Ireland, were written.

It’s no wonder that people are still drawn here from across the world … to find the real Ireland in this ancient kingdom, out on the Atlantic coast.

Monday 4 February 2013

The Tradition of Hospitality in Ireland

Following on from our post about The Brehon laws, our Guest Relations Manager, Danny McClure saw this blog post and we thought it would be very appropriate to share this with you. This article aims to explain why the tradition of hospitality is so engrained in the Irish culture.  We hope you enjoy it!

I remember returning home to Ireland after almost two years travelling back in 2007. I got as far as Heathrow and joined the check-in queue for an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin. The flight was subsequently delayed and I recall smiling as I noticed the sound level of conversation beginning to steadily rise. Irish people who had been strangers a short time earlier were now exchanging the latest travel news and engaged in friendly chat.


So why are Irish people among the friendliest in the Western world? I’ve always had an interest in ancient Irish history and culture which helps shines a light on a possible reason for one of our most enduring and popular character traits.

It turns out that in ancient Ireland, hospitality was mandated by law. Welcoming a stranger was an enforced cultural norm with a detailed set of customary guidelines. To refuse hospitality was to risk being shunned and sanctioned. This might seem a tad draconian and archaic nowadays, but there were several practical reasons for this law.

Ancient Ireland had no towns or major roads and areas were isolated by mountains, vast boggy marshes and huge forests. Encouraging a culture of hospitality promoted travel, trade and the exchange of new ideas, crafts and traditional arts. This led to a very vibrant rural society in ancient Ireland and helped forge a unified cultural identity.

Strangers could arrive unannounced at the door of any Irish homestead and be expected to be provided with hot water, a warm meal of meat and veg, a clean bed of straw and entertained with music, poetry, songs and stories by the fireside. This custom is reflected in the Irish language in one of the most popular phrases, céad míle fáilte, which translated means ‘a hundred thousand welcomes.’

I believe that this ancient code of hospitality has left a cultural imprint on Irish people who came to recognise the mutual advantages that come with a friendly and outgoing disposition and giving strangers a warm welcome...

This might be the perfect time to visit Ireland and experience the warmth, wit and hospitality of its people for yourself, in this year of the Gathering 2013.