This may be of interest: Novelist and food writer (and playwright, eg Tolka Row) Maura Laverty (1907-1966) wrote wonderfully about Irish food in her first semi-autobiographical novel Never No More (1942). Young Delia lives with her grandmother, and both of them delight in making and sharing all the traditional mainstay dishes and baked goods. The sequel, after the grandmother's death, in which the 16 yearold Delia goes to Madrid, initially as a sort of governess, makes a fascinating account of the comparable range of trad food there: Delia is a total failure as a governess, but manages to stay on in the city, doing clerical work and writing pieces for the Irish papers, while lodging in a room over a family-run baker and confectioner! When Laverty returned from her own time in Spain, she worked as a journalist and broadcaster, publishing much-loved cookery columns, and recipe books, as well as the two novels above, and other socially illuminating novels re women's lives and choices Alone We Embark (1943: banned in Ireland, and winner of the Irish Women Writers' Award!) and Lift Up Your Gates (1946).
Catherine Byron
________________________________
From: The Women on Ireland Research Network on behalf of Rhona Richman Kenneally
Sent: Wed 06/07/2005 14:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Irish food culture
Dear fellow list members,
I'm doing research on Canadian food culture and am interested to know who might be doing
similar or related work in Ireland. I'm currently exploring the relationship between food incentives
such as cookbooks, advice columns, government pamphlets and advertisements, etc., and the
actual adoption and appropriation of these in the home since the second half of the twentieth
century. I'm also curious about the implementation of new foods in the Postwar era, and on how
domestic design and architecture adapted and influenced eating practices in the family. It would
be fascinating to know if anyone is studying these or similar aspects of Irish culture, especially
given what seems to me to be a significant food renaissance in Ireland over the past decade or so.
I'd also appreciate hearing about any archival material that seems potentially rich in this area.
Many thanks,
Rhona Richman Kenneally
____________________________________________
Rhona Richman Kenneally, Ph.D. (Architecture)
Dept. of Design and Computation Arts
Concordia University, Montreal
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