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UPFRONT:AS YOU READ THIS, I’m still in recovery. Two days ago was Thanksgiving, and the way the Americans do gratitude, it’s a relief it only gets expressed once a year. The problem with adopting a foreign feast like this is that one lacks the cultural coding that makes it so digestible to seasoned Thanksgivers.

From an Irish perspective, it comes at the wrong time. We’ve become accustomed to our own festive chronology: just as the ubiquitous Valentine heart morphs seamlessly into the Patrick’s Day shamrock, so it has always come to pass that the Halloween barmbrack gives way to the Christmas blow-out. Shoving a whole other holiday in between fairly boggles the Irish mind. And given that Christmas takes up a good six weeks these days, it’s hard to know how to accommodate the interloper. Sure the Christmas lights are already on – where would you find a window?