Eating together’s the recipe for happy Irish family life

The tables have turned on fast food and microwave meals for one. These days, Irish families like to spend time together and enjoy the comradery that comes with sitting down to a home cooked meal.

Tue, 21 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Dan Buckley

According to the latest survey on dining-in, more than half of families share a meal at least five times a week.

There is a quiet, everyday mealtime revolution taking place around the country, with a back-to-basics tradition of shared mealtimes and cooking from scratch, according to the first ever SuperValu Home Truths report released yesterday.

More than half of the population believe sharing a meal is the No 1 thing that keeps families together.

The study also reveals a movement towards back-to-basics, yet inspirational, cooking.

Irish people are getting more passionate about buying and cooking fresh food —78% say they try to cook from scratch as much as possible, with only 16% of families regarding cooking as an “unavoidable chore”.

There is also a growing trend enabled by our sharing culture — finding and sharing recipes on the internet comes second only to mum who is still the main inspiration for 43% of the nation’s cooking.

The report, developed with clinical psychologist David Coleman, was carried out among 1,000 respondents, combined with an additional focused study of 400 families living at home with children under the age of 18.

According to Mr Coleman: “It’s encouraging to see that Irish families see the value in taking some time out to sit down together for dinner.”

Being able to relax and enjoy one another’s company are seen as the best things about coming together for dinner by 60% of the population and the atmosphere at family dinner tables seems to be generally good fun, with dad named as number one entertainer.