Christmas is coming, but first things first – we are now in Game Season and we should start to see pheasant, partridges and wild ducks appearing in good butchers this month. 

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.

FOOD and wine matching can get over-emphasised these days and unnecessarily panic home cooks.

NOW that we can get the same vegetables and fruit in the supermarket in January or July we have lost much of our instincts for eating seasonally.

A handful of protestors have managed to breach security and enter a Mayo hotel where the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party is meeting, it has emerged.