Joe McNamee: We have to bring alternative voices into the big tent of Irish food

Antonio Garcia from Spain, Patrick Hallinan and Cosimo De Matteis from Italy, help with digging a pond at Togher Community Garden, Clashduv Road. Picture: Larry Cummins

A wise man once shared a highly effective communication technique with me, as fruitful when admonishing sullen teens, as it is when critically appraising a colleague’s work, or in public, to convey a harsh truth without entirely losing the audience. 

It is very straightforward. To deliver a negative — criticism, condemnation or castigation — begin with a positive, then the negative, before finishing again with a positive. It is called the ‘shit sandwich’. Reflecting on last week’s column about the perilous state of Ireland’s food security, I am conscious that I offered a lot of shit and very little sandwich.