No, I'm not handing out Ferrero Rocher, but you must admit that 3 Shed missives in 2 days is good going. Trying to make up for the gap while I was away.
I'm sitting in my shed working up the text of the talk I'll be giving this weekend. Well, talks, actually. On FRIDAY, in the Irish WOrkhouse Centre, here in Portumna, I'll be giving a talk at A Taste of Portumna. It's an afternoon event in the wondrous surroundings of the workhouse, gathering some of the area's top food producers and blowing the trumpet a little about the fabulous ingredients to be found in this part of Ireland and the imaginative and honest ways that food producers round here deal with them. Since my book is all about the food and drink of Ireland down through the millennia (and with a good mention of Irish hospitality in there, too) this will be a very appropriate event. And I invite you all to attend. The workhouse is offering free tours on Friday, and the tour is well worth doing, with expert guides to take you round.
AND as if that weren't enough, I'll be giving the opening talk at the Eaten Bread conference on this coming SATURDAY, also in the Irish Workhouse Centre. This conference will bring together some top historians, learned in all sorts of aspects of Irish history. My role is to present an overarching vista of the entire history of Ireland. No small task. But by limiting it to the role played by food and drink, I have some hope of holding it all together! I shall do my very best to make the time fly by, offering fascinating and informative snippets from all manner of documents, ballads, interviews, diaries and more.
Those of you reading this in Foreign Parts just have time to book their flights to Shannon or Dublin and dash to Portumna. You won't regret it.