One Pint Changes Every Stew

Ireland's best kitchen secret is on draught

Dear Ireland,

The smell of turf smoke on a country road at dusk is Ireland’s signature perfume. You catch it before you see the chimney — that sweet, earthy, ancient scent drifting down from a farmhouse somewhere above the lane. It mixes with the damp hedgerow and the salt on the breeze if you are near the coast, and suddenly you are not walking down a road. You are walking through a feeling.

Some countries you see. Ireland, you breathe in.

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Today’s Newsletter Presented By

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In today’s email:

• Beef and Guinness Stew

• Don’t Let Your Ireland Trip End In Tears

• From Our Love Ireland Community - You can now send a free Irish card in seconds.

• Ireland’s Best Cooking Classes

• At The Bar - Why Every Pint of Guinness Takes Exactly 119.5 Seconds to Pour

• Around The Web: 🌊 Coastal Foraging: A Gentle Way to Nourish Body and Soul 🎶 Clifden Traditional Music Festival Returns April 9–12, 🔒 The Most Meaningful Short Drive from Dublin, and more

• From Love Ireland -A Dish That Once Decided Your Future

• Irish Food You Will Love - Slow-Cooked Oxtail in Guinness Recipe: Authentic Irish Flavour

• The Craic -What Irish Place Names Actually Mean

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Beef and Guinness Stew

👉 Read the full story

There is a reason this recipe keeps showing up on Irish kitchen tables, generation after generation. The secret to a truly game-changing beef stew isn’t more herbs or a fancier cut of meat — it’s a generous pour of Ireland’s most famous stout. The Guinness transforms everything: it deepens the gravy into something rich, dark, and impossibly warming, the kind of dish that makes your whole house smell like an Irish Sunday.

We’ve put together the full recipe — including the one step most people skip — and it’s ready for you to try this week:

👉 Read the full story

Have you ever made a Guinness stew at home? Hit reply and tell us — what's your secret ingredient? We'd love to hear.

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“Want deep dives into Ireland every Sunday? Our premium readers already have their next edition waiting.”

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Don’t Let Your Ireland Trip End In Tears

Top Experiences In Ireland Likely To Sell Out

2026 is going to be a busy year - Here is a list of the top experiences that will most likely sell out and you should book in advance. Don’t delay!

“...so you can focus on making memories, not managing schedules.”

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From Our Love Ireland Community

The Love Ireland Facebook Group is a community of 1.3 Million happy people!

Birthdays.
Thank you.
Missing someone.

Or just because Ireland is on your mind…

You can now send a free Irish card in seconds.

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Ireland’s Best Cooking Classes

From hands-on baking to Irish coffee and whiskey cocktail masterclasses, these cooking classes offer a genuine way to taste Ireland beyond the pub. This guide rounds up the top-rated options across the country, with clear prices and formats, so you can choose what fits your trip best. It’s about learning, sharing, and coming home with more than photos.

👉 Read the full story

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At The Bar

Why Every Pint of Guinness Takes Exactly 119.5 Seconds to Pour

You've stood at the counter and waited. You've watched the barman tilt the glass, pause, and wait again. But do you know exactly why a proper pint of Guinness takes precisely 119.5 seconds to pour — and what happens if you rush it? The answer involves physics, nitrogen, and a ritual that every Irish bartender treats as sacred. This is one of those stories that will change the way you watch your next pint being pulled.

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Around The Web

🌊 Coastal Foraging: A Gentle Way to Nourish Body and Soul

Mark Williams explores Ireland’s extraordinary coastline as a forager’s paradise — from sea beet and sea sandwort to nutrient-rich seaweeds that our ancestors relied on for centuries. If you’ve ever fancied finding your supper on a shoreline walk, this is where to start.

🧀 Record Irish Entries at the British & Irish Cheese Awards

A record-breaking 48 Irish artisan cheeses — from Cashel Blue to Cooleeney — have been entered into this year’s competition, a proud milestone for Ireland’s farmhouse cheesemakers. The artisan cheese scene has never been stronger.

🐣 Celebrating an Irish Easter: Traditions and Recipes

With Good Friday just days away, this is a lovely guide to the food customs that make Easter in Ireland unique — from simnel cake topped with eleven marzipan apostles to the old tradition of cluideog, where children danced door-to-door collecting eggs.

🎶 Clifden Traditional Music Festival Returns April 9–12

The 16th annual festival brings champion musicians, workshops in fiddle and concertina, a busking competition, and free outdoor concerts to one of Connemara’s most beautiful towns. If you’re in the west of Ireland over Easter, this is unmissable.

💊 Every Irish Village Once Had Someone With ‘The Cure’ — and Many Still Do

Long before pharmacies and doctors’ surgeries, every townland in Ireland had a local healer who could treat ailments with a gift passed down through generations. The tradition hasn’t disappeared — if you know where to look.

🔒 The Most Meaningful Short Drive from Dublin

A journey through Wicklow and Wexford — ancient ruins, the Dunbrody Famine Ship, castles and coastlines — all within easy reach of Dublin.

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From Love Ireland

THE WEDNESDAY KITCHEN: A Dish That Once Decided Your Future

Here’s a question for you: what is the humble Irish potato dish that once had the power to make or break a woman’s reputation? It’s not colcannon, and it’s not boxty — though they’re close relatives. This particular dish was so important that how well a young woman prepared it could determine her marriage prospects for years. The story behind it is one of the most fascinating in all of Irish food history.

And YouTube

For More From Social Media:

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Irish Food You Will Love

Sticky Toffee Pudding

If you’ve ever had sticky toffee pudding in Ireland, you already know — it’s in a league of its own. Dense, dark, soaked in a buttery toffee sauce that pools around the edges, and best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that melts on contact. This is not a dainty dessert. This is the kind of pudding that makes you close your eyes and forget where you are. Our full guide walks you through every step, from the dates to the sauce to the perfect temperature.

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Interested in more Irish Recipes?

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The Craic

What Irish Place Names Actually Mean

Every place name in Ireland is a poem in disguise. The English versions are translations — or more often, mishearings — of the original Irish, and when you learn what they really mean, the whole landscape comes alive:

Dublin — “Dubh Linn”, the Black Pool. A Viking settlement beside a dark tidal pool on the River Liffey.

Belfast — “Beal Feirste”, the Mouth of the Sandbar. The city grew where the River Farset met the Lagan at a sandy ford.

Galway — “Gaillimh”, possibly from the Irish word for “stony.” The City of the Tribes, built on rock.

Donegal — “Dun na nGall”, the Fort of the Foreigners. The foreigners were Vikings. The fort is long gone. The name remains.

Glendalough — “Gleann Da Loch”, the Valley of Two Lakes. Which is exactly what it is. The Irish were not always mysterious.

Knocknagoshel — “Cnoc na gCaiseal”, the Hill of the Stone Forts. Try saying it three times quickly.

Next time you look at an Irish map, read the names aloud. You are speaking a landscape into existence.

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TODAY’S GAME IS LIVE

A new question drops every single day — landmarks, traditions, food, history, hidden corners of the island. Think you know Ireland? Today’s challenge might prove you wrong. Give it a go and see if you can get five stars.

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Essentials you need to pack for your Ireland Trip

UK Ireland Scotland Power Adapter Plug, TESSAN Type G Travel Adaptor with 2 USB Charger Ports 2 American Outlets, US to London England British Hong Kong Irish Kenya Dubai Qatar Wall Adapter.

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