Random Notes from The Full Irish

Things I noticed over a three week trip to Ireland

I’ve largely completed my round-by-round recap of The Full Irish, and I’ll shortly do what everyone has asked (and by “everyone,” I mean like two or three people) and put out a rankings recap of all the courses.

But, after spending three weeks in Ireland, a few things were impossible not to notice. I’m not just talking about how narrow some roads were, or the fact that most “beef burgers” were cooked to the consistency of a hockey puck. Other things I didn’t really expect stood out, so here they are.

• We stayed in a good amount of hotels and/or bed-and-breakfasts. Almost all of them provided toiletries, but what was really interesting was that almost all of them had ONE bottle or dispenser for “Shampoo/Body Wash.” That’s right, Ireland is taking on Big Toiletries, and dismissing the idea that there’s any material difference between the two. I kind of loved that.

• I don’t really use hairdryers, but it was fairly odd that almost every hotel room had the hair dryer out in the bedroom area, not the bathroom. I can’t quite sort that out.

• As for those breakfasts that came at the hotel? The buffet style ones had SCALDING hot plates quite often. Like, you can’t hold the plate without a napkin. Also, and I think I’ve mentioned this already, but we saw multiple spots where whiskey was provided as a topping for porridge. Wild stuff.

  

  Red Bush with your porridge? That’s one way to start the day.

• Speaking of whiskey, for a country with a reputation for drinking, the Guinness does not disappoint… but mixed drinks are a bit of a travesty. Everywhere seems to fill up your glass with the liquor then provide you with the small bottle of your ginger ale, etc. It’s wild and sort of bizarre. Why not pour it all? Why not have those things on tap? Yet another reason just to stick to the best beer on earth.

• As for meals in general, Ireland does something that absolutely should be done everywhere, and I suspect it’s federally mandated - almost every menu we saw had numbers next to every dish which mapped to a legend that indicated which allergens were present in those dishes. So if you had a nut or a gluten or a fish allergy, there was no confusion as to what dishes to avoid. Why don’t we do this?

• If you do go to Ireland, prepare to use salt and pepper - not sure why so much felt unseasoned, and that’s certainly not true everywhere but … it’s wild. Especially the “chips” (what we call fries), which aside from the ‘salt and chili’ version were really quite universally bland.

  

  These are not bland.

• Almost every pub and clubhouse had the same menu. Like, it almost seemed by design. They all had the beef burger, chowder (universally great), fish and chips, a curry, scampi (which meant fried shrimp), some type of pasta (often lasagna) and a club sandwich. It’s good quick food. It’s tough on day 15.

• Best meals we had - the clubhouses at Ardglass and Narin & Portnoo, the Yellow Pepper in Letterkenny, the Smugglers Inn in Waterville and Fishy Fishy in Kinsale. Those were all outstanding meals, and they tended to get better and better over time.

  

• We were also sold on the lobster roll at the Old Head clubhouse. It was, as the kids say, very “mid.” And incredibly expensive. Pass.

• The roads are absolutely littered with roundabouts, which in general I’m in favor of (they are a bit more chaotic driving on the left side of the road, but you learn how to deal with it). One thing I loved was that so many of them took the circular space inside the roundabout to put some public art, almost all of which was really cool.

  

• I’m nobody to talk about fashion. But it WAS weird that a lot of otherwise very attractive women seemed to not only have gotten “fake bake” tans, but applied a TON of makeup, to a level that would be garish most everywhere. It’s clearly what’s popular, and it’s weird. And for the guys, the popular haircut seems to STILL be the shaved sides and back with a mop of hair on top. It’s quite something.

• Finally, after maybe throwing some darts in the above, I’ll end with this - the Irish people are genuinely lovely. We rarely met anyone who wasn’t very good natured, helpful and generous with his or her time. What’s more, folks seem invested in having a good time with anyone they encounter, not just their mates. This is what the ‘craic’ is all about to me. And it’s worth finding. Ireland rules.