Strip Christmas of its baubles, batteries and Amazon deliveries, and what you’re left with is, at heart, a festival of plants. Trees dragged indoors. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling. Berries admired but (wisely) not eaten.

Research has shown that Ivy protects walls from heat, cold, salt, frost, and pollution — so is often more helpful than harmful to heritage structures

The owners of famous London restaurant The Ivy have been given the green light to open in Dublin.