Bernard O'Shea: Flat 7Up, poitín and other miracle cures of Ireland

Vaccines are great and all but have you ever been cured by the healing power of flat 7Up?

Bernard O'Shea wonders why a bottle of fizzy drink is a better hospital gift than wine

Last week I received the second dose of my Covid jab and I’m now fully vaccinated. By all accounts it was a miracle that modern science was so rapid in its development, however, it wasn’t the first miracle cure to hit our shores.

“The doctor said flat 7Up is very good for that,” my mother would continuously say when I was growing up. You could have anything: verrucas to headaches, gum boils or fevers – there was nothing a bit of flat 7Up couldn’t fix.