Ireland has developed an interesting relationship with food for many reasons, between the famine and certain folk traditions.

While some might mark St Patrick’s Day with a roast or a dinner of bacon and cabbage, there is no signature meal associated with the celebrations, despite the popular American belief that the Irish traditionally eat corned beef and cabbage.

Food and culinary historian at University College Cork Regina Sexton told Late Breakfast with Clare McKenna that this idea comes from Irish American traditions.

Paddy O's irish american bar with irish and us flags flying Boston USA. Image: Radharc Images / Alamy. 8 May 2017

“A lot of [Irish immigrants] in America, you can see some of their menus [from the 19th century], they’re really interesting,” she said.

“The menus would have been French based menus; the thinking of the time was that the epitome of good food would be French food.

“So, you’ll see the menus printed in both French and Irish, you’ll see that happening as well at important banqueting events.”

'Complex identity initiatives'

Ms Sexton said that through this, an association was formed with Irish food and cornbeef and cabbages.

“Then as you move into the 1920s, they start thinking about maybe profiling Irish produce for economic reasons,” she said.

“So, there’s all of these kind of complex identity forming initiatives around food, but the one that I suppose has stuck is the cornbeef and cabbage.

“I think all Americans think we all back home are eating cornbeef and cabbage today – which of course we’re not.”

Corned Beef and Cabbage. Image: Candice Bell / Alamy. 5 March 2018

According to Ms Sexton, it is not particularly unusual for a Saints day not to have an associated dish.

“I should say is that we’re not unique, other Saints don’t have particular feasts either, so we’re not isolated in that regard,” she said.

“I suppose the concept of traditional matchings onto food in Ireland is a very problematic one because the history of food in Ireland is almost really very much connected with the history of politics and economics.

“Irish history is so complex and it’s changed so much and we have upheavals, we have breaks in tradition, we have new things coming in, we have old things being forgotten.”

However, Ms Sexton said the quality of Irish food is something that we should take the time to appreciate this St Patrick’s Day.

Main image: Irish bacon and cabbage with parsley sauce. Image: Simon Reddy / Alamy Stock Photo