Cork: Good food, great buzz

The Club Brasserie, Lapps Quay, Cork; Tel: [phone], theclubbrasserie.com

THE Minister for the Gaiety of the Nation has had a challenging few years, dealing with a population wavering between melancholia and malevolence.

If he, or maybe even she, was a stand-up comic they’d have died a thousand deaths so glum and put upon, so utterly unmovable were the audience. At times optimism seemed a rare and precious jewel beyond compare, a smile flickering but begrudged.