PenPal Readers discussion

*NEW* Monthly Spotlight on a country

🍀🍀🍀🍀IRELAND🍀🍀🍀🍀
Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland
Happy St Patrick's Day March 17th

✍Penpals: Are you a PenPal born/living/lived in Ireland? Do you have Irish heritage? Say hello and share with fellow PenPals , tell us about your country!

📚Books: Are you reading/planning to read/ have read a book from an Irish author, or set in Ireland? Share with your fellow penpals, tell us about Irish reads you're excited about!

✈️Travels: Have you traveled to/will you visit Ireland? Share with your fellow penpals, tell us about travels in Ireland!

🍀 Holidays: How do you plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

🥩🍺Food n Drink: Have any yummy Irish recipes to share?

🎲 Activity:Join in on our 🍀 'LUCK O' THE IRISH' 🍀Book Challenge this month...

I visited Ireland 11 years ago next month. I'd absolutely love to go back (Sooner rather than later...). I miss it.
For St. Patrick's Day I make a big pot of stew and homemade bread. Also alot of corned beef and cabbage meals in March lol. Several Irish friends also give me recipes to try now and then.
I'm one of several admins on a mostly Irish Facebook group so I'm always getting at least a small dose of Ireland in my life Haha.

P.S. always happy to accept postcards or snailmail from Ireland ;)

Missy wrote: "I visited Ireland 11 years ago next month. I'd absolutely love to go back (Sooner rather than later...). I miss it.
For St. Patrick's Day I make a big pot of stew and homemade bread. Also alot of c..."

YUM! Stew and homemade bread is such a wonderful comfort meal :)
Are you Irish of heritage ,Missy? Were you visiting family or friends, or touristing, when you went?

I have not been to Ireland yet, but really want to someday! Cliffs of Moher, The Giant's Causeway, Dublin, Galway, Cork.. so many awesome places to visit!

I lived in Ireland for about 9 months back in 2014. I did a year abroad while I was doing my undergrad degree. I lived about 30 minutes from Dublin. It was amazing! I would love to eventually move back at some point.
While I was there I was able to spend St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. It was absolutely mad!

My family is from Ireland on my mom's side; she was first gen of our family to be born in the states. We celebrate St. Patrick's day but not like how most did. We ate lamb and colcannon and went to church and had friends visit. No green beer (can't color Guinness). We' would go to the civic center and watch Celtic dancing. My dad - who is part Irish and a lot Swedish always took us to whatever parade was going on. Oddly, we kids were never introduced to our Ireland side of the family. My spouse is Scottish and Black Foot. Our kids have interesting temperaments but are stubborn as goats. Might try to bring them to Ireland one day but not sure I want to bring that storm to the Emerald Isle.

Colcannon Cakes

Boil a head of cabbage drain (even press them to drain all the water you can) and let it cool. Boil up some potatoes (I use Idaho yellow) and leave the skins on. Mash up with cream, butter and shredded Dubliner's Cheddar cheese (or whichever you like). Fry up some bacon softly and then run it in the food processor. Add it to the potatoes. Put the cooled cabbage into the food processor. Mix as much or little as you like into the potatoes and then form into patties. Fry up in a pan until lightly brown. You can use the bacon fat if you like but pour it into a clean pan to fry up the cakes. They are rich and will not need a topping. If you don't like them so rich, just mix the potatoes with milk - skip the cream and cheese. These will be good with a bit of sour cream or Frank's to top off.

My mother is Irish, and I had an Irish boyfriend, so visited him in Dublin at Easter, March 1999, where I defaced a bench on St. Stephen's Green in the Garden of the Blind by etching our names into it. Shortly afterwards we broke up and it was too painful to think of going back.

I've ordered this book:
A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

I will not be celebrating St. Patrick's Day, as I live in the north of England and here it's not a special day - a few pubs will sell Guinness hats (I bought one once) and more Guinness to drink for those who frequent the pubs - but that's not me.

I don't eat meat so here are a few vegan Irish recipes.
https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/10-vegan...

Anne ✨ wrote: YUM! Stew and homemade bread is such a wonderful comfort meal :) 
Are you Irish of heritage ,Missy? Were you visiting family or friends, or touristing, when you went?

My greatgrandparents are both Scottish and Irish but came to Canada. I was just being a tourist when I went.
Its ridiculously beautiful there and I did not have the time to see everything. I could stay there for years and not see what l want to see lol
The Cliffs of Moher were breathtaking, Dublin and Galway were fun. I didnt get to see the Giant's Causeway unfortunately, Im a rock nerd too so I want to. County Kerry was just beautiful. Connemara, Claire... Its all beautiful lol

Shadoshard wrote: "My family is from Ireland on my mom's side; she was first gen of our family to be born in the states. We celebrate St. Patrick's day but not like how most did. We ate lamb and colcannon and went to..."

Im definitely trying this recipe, thanks for sharing!

I know that this is probably considered a YA book, bur what I've read so far is really very good. It's called 'Begone the Ragged Witches' by Celine Kiernan. And it is about a girl whose family is more than she knew. When her aunt's health begins to fail, the young woman and her family are drawn back to that world full of magic and a dangerous tyrant with ties to her family. So far I find easy to read and rather delightful.

Shadoshard wrote: "I know that this is probably considered a YA book, bur what I've read so far is really very good. It's called 'Begone the Ragged Witches' by Celine Kiernan. And it is about a girl whose family is m..."

ooh this sounds like a delightful read, with magic and witches and all that good stuff - adding this to my TBR

And that recipe for Colcannon cakes sounds delicious, I can't wait to try this.. maybe my kid's won't notice the cabbage with all the yummy bacon and creamy potato and cheesy goodness 😂 Thanks so much for sharing it!

There is an amazing wealth of great new Irish writers out there at the moment, my personal favourite is Donal Ryan. I will be in Ireland for St Patricks day, no choice I live here :)

Wes wrote: "There is an amazing wealth of great new Irish writers out there at the moment, my personal favourite is Donal Ryan. I will be in Ireland for St Patricks day, no choice I live here :)"

👏👏👏 3 cheers for Wes - our first PenPal LIVING in Ireland to post!! WOOHOO!!

There's certainly a lot of love for your country in this thread :)

Which Donal Ryan to recommend starting with?

I recently listened to The Ruin by debut author Dervla McTiernan It's a mystery, set in Galway. I thought it was really good all around - characters, plot, setting - it was engaging from start to finish! And I loved the Irish accent of the narrator Aoife McMahon in the audiobook.

Sure what's there not to love about Ireland!!! It's the reason we export ambassadors to every part of the globe to sing our praises and boost our tourism .!!!!

With Donal Ryan I would start with The Spinning Heart , try Lisa McInerney if you want something more hard edged.

Wes wrote: "Sure what's there not to love about Ireland!!! It's the reason we export ambassadors to every part of the globe to sing our praises and boost our tourism .!!!!

Er - nagging relatives who can't cook (chuckling). My auntie is almost cliche, though I love her dearly. But her and my nana could not cook. Neither could my mother. Now my dad, who is Scandinavian, is a great cook and I learned Irish cooking (with a Guamanian twist from my travels) from him. Still haven't figured out how to pull off Lamb Kelguin though...