Online talk: Recognising Food as Part of Ireland’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

An online talk with Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Talk will take place online on Zoom.

A Talk with Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire
Drawing on evidence from across a range of disciplines (literature, folklore, history, sociology, etc.), this talk explores the lack of an iconic link between Ireland and food, explaining the reasons why Ireland and food are not immediately linked in the popular imagination. However, it argues for recognition of foodways as a significant element in Ireland’s intangible cultural heritage, and discusses regional foods and traditions such as the Burren Winterage along with some food related songs, poems and placenames.
Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is a senior lecturer in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at Technological University Dublin. He is the co-founder and chair of the biennial Dublin Gastronomy Symposium and a former trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. He is chair of the Masters in Gastronomy and Food Studies in TU Dublin, the first such programme in Ireland. He is co-editor with Eamon Maher of ‘Tickling the Palate’: Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture (Peter Lang: 2014), and with Rhona Richman Kenneally on ‘The Food Issue’ of The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies (2018), and in 2021, Máirtín guest edited a special issue of Folk Life on Irish food ways. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, conference proceedings and encyclopaedias, and is a regular contributor on food history, chefs and restaurants in the media. In 2018, he presented an eight-part television series for TG4 called ‘Blasta’ celebrating Ireland’s food heritage. Along with Michelle Share and Dorothy Cashman, he is co-editor of the new European Journal of Food Drink and Society. In 2021, he was awarded the Research Ally Prize from the Irish Research Council.

Admission: Free but Registration is essential through the link below.