This was what I gave my guests for dinner last night.
Not all traditional I confess , but mostly fairly Irish.
I will give out the various recipes over the next few days.

First I greeted them with some Black Velvet.
This is meant to be a cocktail of 50/50 Champagne and Guinness but I find that too bitter.
Canned draught Guinness mixed with a demi-sec sparkling wine worked very well.

For the Apero cum Starter we gave them Smoked Salmon on Brown soda bread (which Síle made with some smuggled in Howards Oneway Wholemeal Flour)
To give them a little bite I “buttered ” the bread with some entirely non-Irish Olive and Anchovy Mayonnaise- home made of course.

We were blessed with Clive’s recent arrival in the van as he brought with him some excellent joints of back bacon.
These I boiled for an hour, then smathered them in a mixture of honey and coarse seedy mustard before glazing them in a hot oven for another thirty minutes.
As a choice (in fact everyone had both ) I offered a large pot of Irish Stew made with sliced shoulder of lamb , potatoes, onions and carrots.

I made up a small mountain of Colcannon and also very untraditionally fried a head of sliced cabbage in butter.

Dessert is always a problem , I don’t think that we were much concerned with them in traditional Irish cookery.

As Clive had also brought over several kilo of Seville Oranges I decided to do a variation of Madhur Jaffrey’s Orange and Almond cake and make it with these.
To give it that “traditional” appearance I called it marmalade cake- which pleased one of my guests who came originally from Dundee.

I served this with an old classic of mine- Brown Bread Ice Cream , made in my new wonderful ice cream machine which I further gilded by serving with it a dark caramel sauce to which I had added a fair dollop of Irish Whiskey.

To finish ?
Irish Coffees of course.