It’s Fish week at Danú at The Brehon, Killarney

Foodies are in for a real tasty treat this March, as Danú at The Brehon, Killarney hosts a Fish Week for all the fish lovers out there.

Danú at The Brehon are bringing you the best of locally sourced fish and the diners can pick their fish from the fish market set up in the restaurant and the chef will prepare the fish in front of you.  As an added entertainment, the starters will be cooked in the restaurant so you can pick up tips and hints on how to prepare and cook fish dishes in your own home.

There will be a host of wonderful fish dishes from you to choose from such as Shellfish bisque, whole baked brown crab or red mullet on the bone.  The menu is all priced individually so there will be something to suit every budget.

This is The Brehon’s second Gourmet event this year. Last month, The Brehon held their highly successful Signature Nights in Danú where diners were treated to an evening of gourmet delights such as seared breast of Quail, Hay smoked venison and buttermilk panna cotta while accompanied by beautiful piano playing.    

The fish week coincides with Holy Easter week from Wednesday 27^th March to Saturday 30^th March.  To book your table please call 0646630700

For further information visit www.thebrehon.com or Tel 064 6630700

The Angsana Madhatters Tea Party At The Brehon, Killarney Saturday, 6th April

It is time to get your best headpiece ready because Killarney’s most glamorous ladies will be gathering for an afternoon of high tea and high fashion at The Angsana Madhatters Tea Party at The Brehon, Killarney on Saturday 6^th April in aid of the Irish Motor Neuron Association.  

Come along and enjoy refreshing Long Island Iced Tea before sitting down to enjoy homemade lemonade and smoothies. Vintage crockery sponsored by Pearl and Godiva will ensure it is an elegant affair at our tea service which will include delicious savouries followed by a buffet of sweet delights.  And this year we have extended the invite to young adults so you can bring along your daughter or niece and make it a special occasion.

Highlights of the afternoon will include Julie Cobbe from Stylefish.ie who will be holding a Style Master class in how to shop smarter this Spring for your body shape.  She will be offering her top tips to becoming your very own stylist. Hairstylist of the year 2012 Pat O’Neill will be demonstrating the very latest hair styles and trends for 2013 and showing you a few simple styling tricks to transform you. 

There will be a prize for the best dressed lady on the day judged by Julie Cobbe.  Tickets are only €25 per adult and €15 per young adult (12-18 years). To book your ticket please call 0646623980.

It’s Mother’s Day at The Brehon

She gives you all the confidence in the world, she wipes your tears and picks you up when you fall and she always has your back.  It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday 10^th March at The Brehon and we want to thank all the mothers out there.   

Enjoy a wonderful Mother’s Sunday lunch in the award-winning Danú Restaurant.  Savour a delicious four course lunch with amazing starters such as Silver Hill Duck Pastrami with green beans macerated mandarins and sesame dressing or try our mains of Roast and Pressed Belly with Pork Blade, with Jack McCarthy’s Black Pudding and Cox apple puree or Slow Cooked Roast Beef with Gratin and mini Yorkies and Red wine jus.  All produce used in Danú is locally sourced and only the best produce is chosen by Head Chef Chad Byrne.   

All mother’s coming to lunch in Danú get a €25 spa voucher for the Angsana Spa at The Brehon.  The Angsana Spa offers an extensive range of holistic and non clinical spa treatments and massages to refresh and revitalise the sprit, mind and physical being.  

 Lunch is only €30 per adult and €15 per child.   

To book please call 0646630700

Danú at The Brehon | Muckross Road | Killarney | 0646630700

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.

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.

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.

Read more at http://www.vagabondish.com/irelands-enduring-culture-of-hospitality/#XbWbMUOghboM2J1G.99 

The Brehon Laws

Welcome to The Brehon Killarney

Let us amaze you

By custom and culture, the Irish are a hospitable people. Visitors to Ireland happily testify to the warmth of the welcome. But not many realise it is a culture enshrined in ancient Irish law.

The Brehon Laws governed the ancient society of Erin in the days when an emerging Roman Empire sought to civilise mainland Europe. Under Brehon Law, it was an obligation to offer hospitality to anyone who happened upon your dwelling place. But few regarded it as an obligation; they felt it was a privilege to offer a roof, sustenance, warmth and a welcome.

My family’s ancestors were among the first to embrace those laws. We are proud to adhere to them still – and to give expression to that great tradition in a Hotel where we blend the best of the old and the new under the banner that proclaims our heritage.

The Brehon represents the pinnacle of our experience – and our pride. It is the welcome that the O’Donoghue Family have extended for generations.

It gives me great pleasure to bestow this welcome to you – Céad Míle Fáilte.

I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay with us and thank you once again for choosing The Brehon, Killarney.

Mr. Patrick O’Donoghue

Managing Director

                                                                                                                                   

Welcome

I wish to warmly welcome you to The Brehon. I trust you will have a most enjoyable stay.

At The Brehon, we offer a broad range of facilities and services, which are included in this Guest Information Directory. Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of my management Team.

Gary Curran

Hotel Manager

THE BREHON WAY

The O'Donoghues are a family whose ancestors were among the first to embrace the Brehon laws. Keeping true to the essence of those laws on hospitality - they welcome you to celebrate with them The Brehon Experience. 

The Brehon Laws Brehon Laws were civil laws that governed everyday life in the 15th Century and were concerned with payment of compensation for harm done and the regulation of property, inheritance and contracts. The name Brehon comes from the Irish word for 'Judge'  Passed on orally from at least the first century BC the Brehon Laws, named for Ireland's wandering jurists, were first set down on parchment in the seventh century AD, using the newly-developed, written Irish Language, and continued in use until the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The Brehon Way programme ensure both Management and Staff here in the Hotel embrace the Brehon Laws to enhance your customer experience. The Story of our Logo The Salmon depicted in The Brehon logo represents the Salmon of knowledge - from Irish Mythology. The story goes that the poet Fiegas spent 7 years fishing for this salmon, because he knew if he caught it and ate its flesh he would have all the knowledge in the world. When he caught it he asked his young apprentice Fionn to cook it. As he cooked it Fionn burned his thumb and sucked it to relieve the pain. When Fionn gave the cooked fish to his boss, Fiegas saw from the light in Fionn's eyes that he had gained all the knowledge and wisdom of the salmon. Fionn later became the leader of the Fianna famed heros of Irish myth.  The Story of Danú In Irish mythology, Danú is the mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann Old Irish: "The peoples of the goddess Danú "). Though primarily seen as an ancestral figure, some Victorian sources also associate her with the land. Danú was considered as the mythic mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Celtic tribes that first invaded Ireland. Indeed, the Thuata Dé were the descendants of the goddess Danú, and in some local instances, the ruler of the otherworld was a goddess, rather than a god, just as some folktales represented the otherworld as 'the Land of Women'. Danú may be connected with Bridget, daughter of Kildare and of learning, culture and skills.