With the French rugby team in town, Dominique Geary, an avid Franco-Irishwoman of long standing, cooks up traditional St Patrick's Day fare with a fresh twist
You could be forgiven for thinking that the Irish and French have little in common, if you compared our choices of national holidays. One commemorates a holy man who made the humble shamrock famous for ever, the other "holy murder" and the Revolution.
But St Patrick is said to have lived in the Côtes du Rhône area of France and I, for one, like to think that he appreciated the wines produced there. I also have a personal theory that he probably took the snakes with him when he went there, as he knew they were better suited to a warmer climate.
As a French woman who has been enjoying the very warm Irish welcome for more years than I care to remember, I can vouch for the fact that there are plenty more connections between our two people, not least our love of a celebration and a great party.
When I arrived in Dublin for the first time, all those years ago, the first thing that caught my attention at the airport was the Irish flag. Its colours were very familiar to me even though, until then, I had never set eyes on it. The reason for this is that they are the same, but in reverse, as those of the flag of the Republic of Ivory Coast, in West Africa, where I lived until my late teens.
I cannot pretend to have been completely enamoured by the practice of colouring everything green, even the beer . . . But I do like drowning the Shamrock. And I empathise with the sense of national pride as St Patrick's day is celebrated all over the world.
When my husband John and I were first married, we would generally spend St Patrick's day with his parents. It was my mother-in-law who showed me how and what to prepare for this special day's celebratory dinner.
She would always have a good homemade soup to warm us up, after we had been to see the parade. The main course consisted of boiled ham, usually served with a creamy white sauce, to which plenty of chopped parsley had been added, and the dessert would be apple pie. She brought colour in with the choice of vegetables: carrots and cabbage, later on this became broccoli. Of course, there were always a lot of spuds cooked to a fluffy perfection as well, and I always loved the wholesome goodness of this meal.
For this year's celebrations, I've given the traditional menu a French twist.