Joe McNamee: Southern hospitality continues to stand firm — despite a tough year

"Many restaurants are full, bookings hard to come by, but diners are no longer spending freely — often making do with two courses, even one instead of the usual three, and the arse is falling out of restaurant wine sales."

Dingle’s 505 was astounding, Damien Ring and Suzi O’ Gorman’s new restaurant as good as any out there, and what Ring can do to beetroot alone is pure alchemy: My favourite restaurant meal of the year.

I don't sense I’m alone in thinking that it has been a strange and deeply unsettling year.

Geo-political crises now appear to be multiplying exponentially, their impact on ordinary citizens around the world felt in real time.