VIDEO: Dingle Food Festival - Taste of success for a thriving food culture''

It didn’t quite compensate for the recent failure to bring back Sam to the Kingdom, but there was great local delight at the crowning of Cahirciveen company Quinlan’s Seafood as supreme champions at the Blás na hÉireann Food Awards as part of the annual Dingle Food Festival that took place in the Kerry over the weekend.

The festival, now in its ninth year, is a celebration of a vibrant food culture in the town and its hinterland with local producers and restaurants to the fore servicing enormous crowds who came from all over Ireland and abroad to soak up the atmosphere. Every available space is turned into a venue for tastings, demos, talks, debates, with quirky pop-up bars and restaurants in boutiques, shops and galleries supplementing the permanent venues, all offering a dizzying range of dishes.

The weather remained dry and warm enough for the crowds to take to the streets for a spot of al fresco wining and dining, most especially outside the myriad Taste Trail venues throughout the town that saw punters sipping fine wines in An Siopa Ceoil music shop, shucking Glenbeigh oysters down by the waterfront or even joining the brave souls prepared to clock up the cholesterol with a deep-fried Mars Bar.