Serving up the best of Ireland’s food

What cafés and restaurants have captured you heart in 2025? Now’s your chance to shine a spotlight on your favourites by nominating them for the Food Lovers’ Choice Award category in the Good Food Ireland Awards 2025. Launched last week at The Merrion Hotel – the iconic Dublin venue, which bagged winner of the 2024 Five-Star Hotel of the Year – you can nominate your favourite Irish food or drink business for this year’s awards at goodfoodireland.ie/awards-2025.

Ed Cooney, executive chef at The Merrion Hotel, and Birgitta Curtin, owner and master smoker at Burren Smokehouse and Visitor Centre, which won Best Food Tourism Experience in last year’s Good Food Ireland Awards.

Purr-fectly gifted

For those looking to give a meaningful, memorable gift, Cross and Thorn have a handcrafted range of personalised items worth checking out. Each piece is individually made in Ireland and dispatched within 48 hours. This personalised paw frame, €24, is a standout choice for the pet lover in your life. Featuring a layered forest paw print and cat silhouette, it serves as a charming celebration of a much-loved pet, or a touching keepsake in memory of one. Frames can be customised with gold foil lettering and optional soft lighting, making each one a truly unique piece. See crossandthorn.ie

This personalised paw frame is €24.

Acclaimed voices at Sligo Arts Festival

At a time when the world feels divided, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival is all about harnessing the power of art to unite us. They will be doing exactly that from 5 -12 July by bringing people together in pop-up locations across Sligo. The vibrant programme showcases both Irish and international writers in a series of in-conversation events and panel discussions. Highlights include the many workshops for writers (including the aspiring and unpublished) led by seasoned writers like Mary Branley and Sean O’Reilly. You can find an event to your taste at cairdefestival.com and cost of admissions vary.

Kerri Ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places, and best known for her nature writings, who will be in conversation at Cairde Sligo Arts Festival this year.

Farmers setting the ‘bench mark’

A project led by University of Limerick researcher, Dr Catherine Porter, aims to locate and record Ordnance Survey (OS) ‘bench marks’. Sometimes referred to as ‘crow’s feet’, these are measuring points first carved into Ireland’s built environment in the 19th century. You find them typically on buildings, bridges or walls. The University of Limerick launched an app and website last week to rally the public to record these marks before they are lost. Farmers are encouraged to get involved as many markings were placed on pillars and walls at farm entrances.

See ul.libcal.com/calendar/events/LBPH-launch

Benchmarks, or crow's feet, are part of our cultural heritage for the last two hundred years. \Cat Porter

Tag…you’re it!

Get ready to swap boots for tags —the Agricultural Science Association (ASA), returns with it’s high-energy ASA AGTAG and they want you on the field! Whether you’re entering a full company team or signing up solo, this is your chance to connect, compete, and have a laugh with fellow professionals in agriculture, food, and the environment. Join up for an action-packed afternoon followed by a relaxed barbeque where players, companies, and ASA members can mingle and unwind. Proudly sponsored by the Irish Farmers Journal, all proceeds go to Embrace FARM and Waterford Hospice.Team entry (10–14 players): €500; individual player: €35 (placed on the ASA rainbow team); BBQ: €22. Sign up, tag in, and support a great cause.

See asaireland.ie/agtag-tournament