The Menu is in the full throes of festival fever and first port of call is the Galway International Oyster Festival (Sept 25-27).

Not since the heady days of 1846-7 when El Batallón de los San Patricios (The St Patrick’s Battalion) assembled south of the border to take up arms in the Mexican-American War, has your regular Gael displayed such an enthusiasm for things Mexican.

Music fans are heading west in their thousands this weekend for the first ever Westport Festival of Music and Performing Arts.