Séamas O'Reilly: Food in the Ireland of my father's youth was a distraction from the rosary 

There were two main flavours in the Ireland of my father’s youth; sweet and lard, and it was best to boil both away in water, in case a taste for either developed

Séamas O'Reilly. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

My father is confused. “What’s this got to do with sewers?” he asks, over a crackly phone. Minutes earlier, I’d told him this chat would be about “food” which, due to the variable phone reception he enjoys in the wilds of rural Derry, he’d misheard as “sewage”. I’m glad this has happened for several reasons.

Firstly, it’s a charming misunderstanding with which to begin a gently humorous column about my childhood experience of cooking.