In medieval Ireland, a daily portion of three bits of bread soaked in five spoonfuls of spiced wine was thought to warm the stomachs and clear the heads of old men.
With sea buckthorn berries harvested from Bull Island, Shane Kelly’s Dot Brew is brewing a saison, now in white wine barrels in a warehouse in Dolphin’s Barn.
Nial Ring has far outpaced earlier lord mayors. He’s simply more sociable than others, he says. “The Mansion House is belonging to the people of Dublin.”
Imposing a minimum price on alcohol would enrich big drinks companies. Upping taxes on all alcohol would achieve the same public-health aims, but steer the cash to state programmes instead, writes Andy Storey.
When the sun comes out, it sometimes seems like half of Dublin is sitting along canals and in parks with a drink. Is it time to revisit the bylaws against drinking in public?
Yes, there are Irish wines. David Llewellyn makes them from grapes he grows in his County Dublin vineyard, and sells them at off-licences and markets in city. His best so far? His 2014 cabernet-merlot, he says.
