Here's how a shopping trip for food essentials in the North compares to the Republic

A pack of spaghetti up North is half the price it is here, while food writer Caitriona Redmond was able to make a week's meals from a £29 Asda shop. Why is Ireland's food so expensive?

Alan Lewis - PhotopressBelfast.co.uk 25-2-2022 Caitriona Redmond feature on cross-border shopping for household food items. Photo: Alan Lewis

Even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sharp increases in food and fuel prices, inflation had been causing a rise in the price of essentials that was beginning to hurt people on lower incomes.

After I wrote in the Irish Examiner recently about the effect of inflation and increased grocery prices on families on a budget, a number of readers contacted me to ask if I had heard of Jack Monroe. Jack is a food writer and social justice activist, who raised British awareness of a rise in food prices in January 2022.