Bernard O'Shea: The Irish carvery is my one true culinary love

The queue, the carbs, the desperate hunt for a seat. There's nothing Bernard doesn't love about a carvery dinner.

Bernard O'Shea. Photograph Moya Nolan

There seems to be a Ross and Rachel “we were on a break” confusion between the hospitality sector and the Government at the moment and what I long for is the day when I can rekindle my relationship with my one true culinary love: the Irish carvery.

If I was given the task by the Oxford English Dictionary to describe a typical Irish carvery, I would probably define it as: “A meal enjoyed mostly in a pub setting by Irish people who wanted a ‘dinner’ but just couldn’t face into boiling spuds, young families seeking refuge with Granny and Grandad, and upright citizens bet down with a vicious hangover from the night before.”