Many, many years ago I was involved in selecting an end-of-the-food-chain rugby team — Minor B Seconds — at a small, rural, end-of-the-world club. 

Pier 26 Seafood Restaurant, Ballycotton, Co Cork, 

White Horses,

Chez Hans,

Ristorante Rossini, 33/34 Princes Street, Cork, 021-4275818, rossini.ie

1826, Adare, Co Limerick; tel: 061-396004, 1826adare.ie

The Church Restaurant, Bridge Street, Skibbereen, Co Cork, 028-23625, thechurchrestaurant.ie

Jacobs on the Mall, 30 South Mall, Cork 021-4251530, jacobsonthemall.com

Quay Co-op vegetarian restaurant, 24 Sullivan’s Quay, Cork; Tel: 021-4317026; www.quaycoop.com

Gregan’s Castle Hotel, Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, Tel: 065-7077005, gregans.ie

The Cliff House Hotel, Ardmore, Co Waterford; tel: 024-87 800; web: thecliffhousehotel.com

THE western end of Cork City suburb Sunday’s Well once hosted a prison, a Good Shepherd Convent Magdalen Asylum, and two pubs.

THIS is the time of the year when your Kerry friends, many of them beloved cousins, sidle up to your weak shoulder, head bowed but eyes cross-haired on everything that moves, feet flicking at some imagined football.

ISAAC’S, a two-decade, food-trade veteran — making it almost a doyen among Cork City’s restaurants — stands behind one of the most inviting façades in the south of Ireland.