Ten years ago, Simon Kershaw landed in West Cork fresh from a decade of cooking across America – first in Boston, then San Francisco and New Orleans. Time flies when you’re doing something you love and it wasn’t long before the Dublin native branched out on his own with ’Ceapairí’.

After working for a time at Gubbeen, where he dipped his toes into cheesemaking before moving to the smokehouse, the spark to start up his own food business originated from a classic: the Reuben. “It’s still my favourite sandwich,” says Simon. He started curing his own salt beef, baking his own bread, and chasing that perfect toasted sandwich.

With the purchase of a food truck and Simon baking bread, with Liz on the sweet treats, anyone smart enough to seek them out discovered what ‘proper’ toasted sandwiches tasted like. The Reuben was the star: The key ingredient – rye and wholemeal sourdough – was perfected while Simon was working with Ryan at Pike Deli in Clonakilty. That recipe hasn’t changed and Pike Deli still supplies the sourdough bread.

What really sets this small business apart is the sheer amount of work done in-house. Almost everything is made from scratch, and for the few things that aren’t, Simon buys the best he can afford.

The latest chapter has seen ‘Ceapairí’ settle into its first proper home: the Kitchen Stories space on Staball Hill in Ballydehob. It’s a step up from the food truck days, offering room to experiment and grow. Alongside the move came a new online ordering platform at ceapairi.tenvito.com, built with the help of Suz at Tenvito. The system has been a game-changer with less food waste, better organisation, and the peace of mind for customers travelling from afar that their sandwich is waiting for them – no sold-out disappointments.

With a restaurant now under his belt, Simon is looking ahead. The sandwich menu remains the anchor of the business, but nighttime cooking and expanded offerings are on the horizon. “The sky’s the limit,” he says.

Through it all, the local community has been of great support. Joanne, the owner of Kitchen Stories, has been generous with her time and knowledge and the well-wishers and regulars are part of this success story.

For a cook who loves to feed people, there’s no greater gift than doing it in the town you call home.

Keep an eye on Instagram for more updates.

When Méabh and Ronan, the creators of OTOFU, the West Cork tofu company, first met, they spent their weekends going for long, blustery walks on the beaches of West Cork, followed by hours cooking up delicious meals together.  

Although they are neither vegan nor vegetarian, the pair particularly enjoy Asian cuisine and a plant-rich diet. And they ‘love’ tofu. In fact, it was this love that inspired them to start OTOFU in the first place. They wanted to show people how deliciously versatile tofu can be, how easy it is to cook, and the many, many health benefits that go with it.

Based in Ballylickey, just outside Bantry, OTOFU is now in its fourth year. During this time, Méabh and Ronan have moved house (twice!), and renovated their home with their two young boys in tow. It has been a wild ride so far.

You really don’t need to be a vegetarian to enjoy tofu. It is a highly versatile food and cooking it is as simple as frying it in a pan with a little oil. You can roast it in the oven, pop it in the air-fryer, or even just chop it up straight from the pack and throw it into a curry. You can breadcrumb it, tear it, ‘fillet’ it, mince it, scramble it, cook it in a meat based dish or just marinade it to get the flavours you want. You can even freeze it (be sure to defrost for 24 hours in the fridge before cooking), which changes the texture to be crispier and chewier, as well as allowing it to absorb way more marinade, like a sponge. There are so many different things to be done with tofu it is definitely worth experimenting to find your favourite way to enjoy this super food (see some of Méabh and Ronan’s top recipes below).

In the past, people have called tofu tasteless and boring – it is anything but! It is a blank canvas for the flavours ‘you’ want to add to it. And OTOFU’s handmade tofu makes the perfect canvas. Many vegan and vegetarian protein alternatives are often highly processed with long lists of ingredients. But tofu just had two key ingredients, and making it is similar to making cheese. OTOFU employs the same traditional, basic process that has been used for hundreds of years. 

Ronan makes the tofu himself fresh every week. He has a background in food production and artisanal cheesemaking and is a true craftsman in everything he turns his hand to. Meanwhile, Méabh looks after all of the marketing, administration, orders, and even delivers the tofu herself. You might have seen her zipping around West Cork and Cork City in the company van. This is a family-run, family-owned, local business in the truest sense. And unlike many products which decline in quality over time, OTOFU’s tofu has only gotten better. With some help from modern machinery and a grant from the Cork North and West Local Enterprise Office, the company have been able to triple their output per day, since they began trading, while ensuring the quality stays at the very top.

And it is not only a delicious, versatile food – tofu is really good for you. It is what’s called a ‘complete protein’. To get a bit technical for a second, basically our bodies need different combinations of amino acids to make the proteins that we need to live a healthy life. However, we can only get nine of these amino acids through food, as the body can’t make them itself. Tofu contains all nine of these essential amino acids, making it a ‘complete protein’, which is similar to eating meat, fish, dairy products and eggs. Many other sources of plant-based proteins are ‘incomplete’ and need to be combined with other foods. The goodness from these foods is then harder to absorb into the body, which means you have to eat more of them – and also absorb more calories and fat – to get the same effect. This isn’t the case with tofu. It really is a super food.

Also OTOFU only uses organic, European grown, non-GMO soybeans, so there are no links to deforestation and they are certified in Ireland with the Organic Trust. The company is also the only Irish tofu you’ll find in your health shops or on the supermarket shelves, with all the other brands being imported.

Have you heard enough? Curious to try it for yourself? Well, fulfill that curious craving by cooking OTOFU, and in doing so support a lighter way to live, locally.

Some of Méabh and Ronan’s favourite ways to eat tofu include:  

Oven roasted Korean chilli tofu, served with Asian slaw and home cooked oven chips, with a side of kimchi and spicy pink sauce (mix mayo, ketchup and hot sauce).

Air-fried Miso sesame tofu, tossed in corn-starch and drizzled with a little veg oil before air-frying for 20 mins at 200 degrees Celsius, shaking a few times while cooking, served with tamari noodles, sesame seeds and broccolini (a favourite for the kids).

Miso and Mushroom Stew, using homemade chicken broth or veg stock, with a miso paste, chunks of plain tofu, mushrooms, courgettes onions and red chillies, served with spring onions, toasted sesame oil and bowls of steaming rice.

Breadcrumbed fillets of tofu – to create the fillets, slice a block of plain OTOFU lengthways in two and then in half again crossways, marinade in soy sauce or tamari for 10-15 mins. Dip lightly in flour or corn starch, roll in seasoned breadcrumbs (or even better home-made herby stuffing) and shallow fry in a generous amount of veg oil on all sides until golden and crispy. Serve with mashed potato, roasted veg and herby, red wine onion gravy if desired.

For full information on all recipes please follow OTOFU.ie on Instagram.

Annmarie Menzies and Ryan Hoy, originally from East Cork and Fermanagh, share a passion for food. After years of working in a variety of food businesses both in Ireland and abroad,  the couple, along with their young daughter, relocated to West Cork seven years ago seeking a life in nature. Running their own food business remained “an itch they couldn’t ignore” and, in 2023, Annmarie and Ryan opened Pike Deli in Clonakilty together.

Annmarie, who initially trained in fine art, is a painter inspired by the surrounding countryside and coastline. Alongside her creative pursuits, she has spent many years working in the food industry. Ryan, meanwhile, has dedicated over two decades to working in kitchens, where he developed a particular fascination with bread-making, which would later become central to their shared venture.

Fully aware of the challenges facing small independent businesses, they approached their business venture with both realism and determination. Their aim was not only to sustain a business but to create an inspiring work environment, built around a close-knit team and a shared love of good food.

From the outset, ingredients have been centre-stage at Pike Deli. Living in West Cork provides access to an abundance of small-scale, local suppliers: Vegetables from John in Timoleague, Mark in Bealad, Lea in Ballydehob and Jason in Ardfield; milk from Paddy in Kilbrittain; chocolates from Niamh in Clonakilty; fresh eggs from Declan; flowers from Renée in Ballydehob; oils, cheeses and meats from Gik; butchery from the Allshires; and pantry items from Jenny and Toby.

Flour is the cornerstone of their business. Recognising its importance, both in quality and cost, they chose to work with Wildfarmed in the UK, a company leading the way in regenerative wheat production. Their methods – growing wheat in diverse, polycropped systems and focusing on soil health – aligned with Annmarie and Ryan’s values. While they hope to eventually source grain locally, they acknowledge that Ireland’s grain culture is still developing, though promising progress is being made with heritage and alternative grains. “This is an exciting time for Irish flour. Keep your eyes peeled for feature loaves on the shelves in 2026,” says Ryan.

Since opening, they have witnessed a significant rise in demand for authentic sourdough bread. “Real sourdough, not to be confused with the surreptitiously marketed supermarket ‘sourdough’ or ‘sourfaux’ as it’s known in baking circles, is made using flour, water and salt,” explains Ryan. “Nothing else. No magic chemicals to suspend its decay, no water from the fountain of youth, just simple grains and healthy bacteria doing the work so your gut doesn’t have to.”

Looking ahead, the couple will continue to focus on baking and selling high-quality bread, source the most nutritious and flavourful grains available, and educate customers about the value of real sourdough. They believe that once people embrace it as a staple, there is little need to return to conventional sliced bread.

Reflecting on their journey so far, the highlights extend beyond the products themselves. The sense of community – both within their team and among their customers – has been a highlight. “Our chefs creating a magical sweet pastry in high summer, using in season fruit from a few kilometres away, seeing the pride in their faces as it lands on the counter. The sheer, childlike joy on a customer’s face, as they try to navigate its journey down their gullet. It’s the exact reason we all keep going!”

Partners in life and business, The Fish Basket’s owners, Peter and Elaine Shanahan, are celebrating eight successful years at this popular coastal location. What started out as a humble food truck serving fish and chips at the side of the road in Rosscarbery is now a thriving all-year-round business with summer opening hours – 9am-6pm seven days a week – kicking off at the end of June.

While Peter and Elaine are hands-on in the business, they credit their team with the smooth running of this operation. “We’ve a great team who have been with us a long time,” says Peter. The couple run a tight ship and when Peter’s not prepping fish or chipping potatoes, he is managing front-of-house, while chef and baker Elaine keeps the kitchen running smoothly and is responsible for all the delicious home-baked goods on display. Their three children also help out.

Serving breakfast, lunch and West Cork Coffee, The Fish Basket offers a small but consistent great value menu using quality, seasonal and local ingredients wherever possible: The fish comes from Glenmar in UnionHall and the organic salad leaves are grown in Bantry by Radical Roots.

While fish and chips is a firm favourite, the scampi and fish tacos also rank very favourably with customers.

Inside you’ll find a warm inviting space with a quirky collection of memorabilia and vintage furniture, all with a story to tell. Signs like ‘Swimsuits are optional beyond this point’ induce the occasional double take on the way to the toilet and you might just find yourself eating fish and chips on a tailor’s table salvaged from Savile Row. The large mirror on the wall has travelled all the way from a train station in Russia while the old phone once belonged to Limerick Prison. “There’s a story to the story in this place,” says Peter laughing.

Out front the covered seating area offers the best view of the ocean and dogs (and their owners) are welcome to enjoy the space.

While Peter and Elaine aren’t afraid to dream big, with the current economic climate bringing a myriad of challenges, they don’t want to rock the boat for now. “We’re happy just to keep our standard high and customers happy,” says Peter. Looking to the future, he says their hope would be to open seven days a week all year round.

The Fish Basket is currently open Thursday-Monday, 9am-5pm. Summer hours kick in at the end of June. Keep an eye on their Socials – updated regularly by Liz of Coffee House Creative – for more details.

Check out the menu at www.thefishbasket.ie.

What does organic beef farming and homeopathy have in common: Claire Hurley, the force of nature who returned to her West Cork roots in 2009 to take over the 55-acre family farm, despite its uphill challenges. Claire farms an upland hilly farm in the townland of Gortnaclohy (field of the stones) near Skibbereen. “That should tell you everything,” she tells Mary O’Brien, laughing. Determined to bypass the Industrial Revolution altogether, by pairing the hardy, ancient genetics of Belted Galloway cattle with holistic animal health principles and organic standards, Claire has built a ‘birth-to-burger’ enterprise that prioritises animal welfare and soil health above all else.

Before becoming a farmer, Claire studied and worked in horticulture before going on to study and qualify as a homeopath.

She has fond memories of a childhood with her grandfather, when they “tilled small fields of fodder beet, potato’s and mangles with a single draft horse”. Mainstream methods of farming felt unsuited to her, as she had “neither the capital or motivation to intensively reclaim or fertilise such a rough landscape or to erect a large slatted shed that would never seen a return of my investment”.

Initially Claire bought four heifers from County Clare, “raising more than a few eyebrows as the breed was a rare and peculiar sight at the time.” In 2011 she acquired a bull, and in 2013 she slaughtered her first animal and sold weanlings. The frozen meat proved a difficult sell at the time. In 2015 she completed a diploma in Speciality Food production at UCC to better familiarise herself with food legislation, labelling, safety and training. Through this course she many gained friends but also confidence in what she was producing – a quality and ethical product.

In 2017 her friend Andy was selling his small food trailer and, as she puts it, “the rest as they say is history”.

Her hot food stall is now a regular sight at the Skibbereen Farmers’ Market every Saturday, and from Easter Sunday and every Sunday until the end of September at Schull Country Market. The main attraction is the Belted Galloway organic Beef Burger on a choice of bread roll – sourdough, ancient grain or brioche – with cheddar or Gubbeen cheese, and homegrown organic onions, tomatoes, gerkins and salad. They also serve a breakfast with the same choice of bread, an organic egg, Baltimore Pig (nitrite free) bacon and homegrown organic onions, salad and tomatoes.  Claire says it’s “a great sense of satisfaction when you serve the beef burger, salad, tomatoes, onions and lettuce that you have grown and cooked yourself!” A selection of frozen meat is always available at the stall.

Claire began her conversion to organic farming in 2010, “sure of the fact that I would continue to farm the land in the way it had always been done”. Having sold the remaining animals, she researched what sort of animal would best fit the habitat, and “landed on the Belted Galloway”, a breed that thrives on a grass-based diet and natural grazing. “They have a longer gastro-intestinal tract, which gives them the pot-bellied appearance, better to extract nutrients from rough grazing and convert into a nutrient dense meat. The breed has the rare ability to marble first and then put on backfat, they do not develop much fat under their hides; instead have a double coat of hair which provides excellent protection in cold, wet and windy weather, perfect for out wintering. They are naturally polled so no requirement for dehorning.” Excess grass in summertime is baled as haylage and supplementary fed so the herd can maintain a natural life as possible. “They are easy calving and excellent mothers so need minimal intervention.”

Claire believes that it has never been more important than now to move away from large-scale, long chain food production to more local agriculture. “Where food production systems rely upon a network of small, usually sustainably-run, family farms, which takes into consideration; the soil type and climate lending to the type of crop or animal to be grown there,” she explains. In her opinion, “Organic farming has not got the dependency on artificial fertilisers, vaccines, antibiotics, vaccines or petrochemicals.”

Homeopathy –  a system of medicine that uses highly diluted substances to trigger the body’s natural healing – plays a significant role in her farming practice. “A key principle would be the observation of signs and symptoms indicating the nature of the imbalance, be that plant or animal or human,” shares Claire, who has used homeopathy in a variety of cases such as calf scour, retained cleaning and a horse with an eye injury. In 2019 she did some training with Homeopathy at Wellie Level to teach the responsible use of homeopathy on the farm, though “Covid brought this to a halt”.

Farming has not been without its challenges. Beginning in September 2024, her herd succumbed to TB. “I ended up losing just under half my herd which included my in-calf cows and heifers, along with the genetics built up over the years.” In 2025, with much reduced stock, she wasn’t sure she would continue, but in November she purchased six organic Belted Galloways from Brennus on Cape Clear. “As the seasons have rolled around new calves have arrived from the remaining herd and life on the farm has returned to normal.”

Looking back, Claire reflects that “things have progressed so far, I never set out to be producing and cooking all my own produce at the Farmers’ markets but I suppose each step borrowed another and as you try to hone and perfect each stage you realise you’re halfway through something else!”

Her philosophy on animal welfare is clear: “An animal that is reared on a natural diet, with its mother, in its family grouping – free of pain and unnecessary intervention – gives it the best chance to be as healthy as possible and without vaccines and antibiotics; and when the time comes – to be transported and handled and slaughtered humanely. I think the consumer appreciates the fact that the animal, which is consumed, is well-looked-after from birth to death, lives a relatively free and good life. As humans, if we are choosing to eat meat, that is the least we can do for the animal who gives his or her life. That every step in that journey is carried out in the best interest of that animal.”

Each stage of the process has been a huge learning curve, from the animal rearing to handling and cooking the end product. The slaughtering process, meat hanging and cutting is carried out by MJ O’Neills in Clonakilty, “whose expertise is vital and without whose help none of it would be possible”.

Farmers’ markets provide more than just income. “Farmers markets are a huge social hub and have a huge sense of community so I do look forward to starting back after a long winter just feeding and talking to cows!” She still keeps horses and enjoys regular lessons, having purchased a young Irish Draught mare which she’s breaking in at the moment. “Of course the horses give the benefit of a mixed grazing system which is very important in organic farming as it interrupts the parasite life cycle. As if I need an excuse!”

Recently Claire has joined the pop up shop at Levis’ in Ballydehob to sell a selection of frozen organic meat. It is a one stop shop for tasty local ingredients in an iconic setting from 9:30am to 12:30pm each Wednesday.

If you’ve walked the Old Head of Kinsale loop this past year, you will have passed by the McCarthy family farm and Old Head Milk shop. If you’re a daily milk drinker then undoubtedly you will also by now be a regular customer. The Atlantic ocean offers a spectacular backdrop to the cows contentedly chewing the cud on the green pastures a stone’s throw from the shop – you won’t get much closer to the ‘from farm to fork’ (or in this case ‘from farm to bottle’) experience than this. Happy cows lead to happy customers and the rich creaminess of the pasteurised, non-homogenised milk from the McCarthy herd and the consistent footfall since the coastal farm shop opened last July is testament to this writes Mary O’Brien.

The 39-acre dairy farm on the Old Head has been in the family for generations – inherited from the Dempsey’s – and today is run by Gerard McCarthy and his son Stephen. Originally operating as a dry stock and tillage farm, Gerard and his wife Anne transitioned into dairy in the mid-1990s when new entrant schemes made it viable, starting modestly with just 14 cows. “Times were very different back then,” notes Gerard, reflecting on a time before milk quotas were abolished in 2015. That regulatory change allowed the herd to expand significantly and today the McCarthy’s milk around eighty cows.

For years, the natural rhythm of a busy dairy farm meant early mornings and long days, with both Gerard and Stephen also working off farm – Gerard as a general builder and Stephen as a carpenter.

“We were burning the candle at both ends,” says Stephen, who was eager to spend more time with his young family.  The solution came in the form of a farm shop, an idea sparked by similar successful ventures in the UK and Northern Ireland.

After researching equipment and visiting other farm milk shops, the family took the plunge in 2021 once approval was granted from the Department of Agriculture. Stephen and Gerard designed the layout of the shop and started building, making a sizeable investment into vending machines and a top-of-the-range pasteurisation system. The result is a sleek, user-friendly operation that bridges traditional farming and modern convenience.

With Stephen’s wife, Louise, the creative force behind the initiative, the farm shop, which opened at the end of July last year, has transformed their operation.

Behind the scenes, raw milk travels via pipeline from the milking parlour’s bulk tank across the yard to a dedicated pasteurisation room – an immaculate space with resin floors and stainless steel fixtures. There, the milk is heated to 76-78 degrees Celsius, cooled through regeneration, and chilled to 4-5 degrees before storage. Every batch undergoes rigorous testing: antibiotic checks pre-pasteurisation and phosphatase tests post-pasteurisation to ensure harmful bacteria are eliminated. “It’s spotless,” says Stephen of the room, where data loggers track temperatures for Department of Agriculture compliance.

Front of house, customers find a self-service experience designed with sustainability at its core. Glass bottles – €3.50 for a litre, €2.50 for a half-litre – are purchased once and returned for refills, eliminating single-use plastic. The milk itself, pasteurised but non-homogenised – €2 for a litre and €1 for a half-litre – retains its natural cream line. “If you leave it settling for a couple of hours, you’ll see a layer of cream sitting on top,” explains Stephen. “Give it a shake and you’ve got that fuller consistency.” The difference from standard shop-bought milk is immediately apparent – parents frequently report that children who refuse milk at home will happily drink the McCarthys’ creamy offering, often enhanced with flavourings available via an honesty box.

The shop also serves freshly ground coffee and hot chocolate – milky and delicious due to the creamy milk – and has outdoor seating, which is particularly popular with beach-goers and walkers exploring the Old Head loop. “We get a lot of walkers,” says Stephen, noting that even on quiet winter mornings, half a dozen cars might fill the car park on a nice day. The family atmosphere extends to the business itself: daughters Amelia (6) and Shóna (4) have their own jobs, emptying bins and stacking bottles, while Louise manages the decor and daily cleaning.

The operation remains deliberately local. Unlike supplying the co-operative, which they still do with the bulk of their milk, the shop requires customers to come to the source. “We kind of want to stay around here,” says Stephen, explaining that delivery would add unsustainable complexity.

Instead, they focus on the experience: fresh milk drawn from cows grazing with ocean views, served in a spotless facility where the connection between land, animal, and product is tangible.

As the McCarthys look ahead, possibilities include school tours and expanded community engagement, though for now, the business remains focused on quality and sustainability. With the cows just metres from the vending machines, Old Head Milk offers a genuine taste of place, bottled fresh by the family who raised it.

My wife sometimes has trouble remembering the colour of the car I am testing. But no trouble last week as my test car, the Leap B10, came in Purple.

Colour is always important when buying a new car, especially for first-time buyers who may have had a favourite colour in their mind for years.

According to Google, the colour purple is associated with a variety of meanings, including wisdom, creativity, royalty, power, ambition and luxury. It can also represent magic, extravagance, peace, pride, independence and wealth. Do you fit into any of those categories?

Leap is the latest Chinese brand to come to Ireland. It’s a company that was only founded in 2015 and didn’t sell its first car until 2019. Yet in six years it has already sold over one million cars worldwide.

The B10 is Leap’s third model to be introduced to Ireland, following on the T03 city car and C10 SUV. The B10 is a mid-sized SUV that is designed to be budget-friendly while still providing modern technology and a huge amount of interior space for five well-built passengers.

Leap say they expect their main competitors in the Irish market for their B10 will be the BYD Atto 2 and Kia’s Elroq, but it’s larger in all dimensions than both of those cars.

Later in the year there will be a Hybrid version of the B10 and two more electric EV models, so by the end of 2026 Leap will have six cars on sale in Ireland.

Externally the car looks very solid. Inside you get a minimalistic look. The dash is dominated by a 14.6-inch display which works well. There are no old-style buttons on the dash. As mentioned earlier the interior is really spacious with plenty of leg and head room.

The boot is a decent size, officially 525 litres and you also get a Frunk at the front, which has 25 litres of space. And like their European counterparts, the Chinese don’t supply spare wheels either.

Prices start at €32,984 and the range in the small 56.2kWh battery is approx. 360km, while the larger 67.1kWh battery which I drove, should give you close to 430km with a full charge. It’s a fine spacious car with a good range and has a very competitive price. 

Leapmotor now have seven dealers in Ireland: Bright Airside, Swords, Dublin, Bright, Navan Road, Dublin, Dan Seaman Motors, Forge Hill, Cork, Fitzpatrick’s Garage, Naas, Greenhall Motors, Buttevant, Cork, Joe Norris Motors, Navan and Kennys, Tuam Road, Galway.

Apart from the Dawn Purple version I drove, other colours available are: Night Blue, Metallic Black, Galaxy Silver, Light White and Tundra Grey. 

Most new cars open when you approach with the fob in your pocket. However, Leap cars are opened by moving the fob card over part of the driver’s wing mirror. Don’t be caught out if you ask for a test drive and cannot figure how to get into the car. You might also have to ask where is the small button to open the boot.

James Brooks, who is the Opel M.D in Ireland, is also overseeing the Leap segment in Gowans and he says that Leap will benefit from the reputation and experience of their extensive dealer network. James is encouraging Irish motorists to ‘Take the Leap’ and take a test drive in one of their new cars.

We spoke back in February about the significant changes to several SEAI grant schemes. As of February 3, 2026, heat pump grants have increased to a maximum of €12,500. This total now includes a new €4,000 Renewable Heat Bonus (essentially a boiler scrappage scheme) and a €2,000 Central Heating Upgrade grant, alongside existing supports. Crucially, this level of funding is now available through Better Energy Homes individual grants – which previously capped out at €6,500 – as well as the One Stop Shop, (OSS) route. Grants for attic and cavity wall insulation have also seen an uplift.

At the start of March, the highly-anticipated Windows and Doors grant launched under the individual measure scheme, previously only available under the OSS grant route. This rollout included higher supports for households receiving certain Social Protection payments and new attic insulation grants specifically for first-time buyers. Additionally, homeowners who previously received a grant for cavity or internal wall insulation may now qualify for a second wall insulation grant.

From what we’ve seen through our own business, the window and door grant is causing the most confusion – which isn’t surprising. The rules and application process are more complex than most other measures, and the full details aren’t always clear on the SEAI website. This month, I want to dive deeper into the intricate details of these new grants.

First, let’s cover the straightforward requirements:

Property Age: Your house must have been built and occupied before 2011.

Performance: New windows and doors must meet a U-value of 1.4 or better (a U-value measures heat loss; the lower the number, the better the insulation).

Contractor: You must use an SEAI-registered contractor.

Timeline: You must apply online via the SEAI Better Energy Homes portal before you start the work.

Payment: You have the work completed, pay the contractor, have a BER assessment completed afterward and then claim the grant back.

The complexity lies in the ‘fabric-first’ criteria specific to windows and doors. To qualify, your home must meet one of the following:

Heat Loss Indicator (HLI): You must achieve an HLI of 2.3 or lower after the windows/doors are fitted. This is the same metric used to determine heat pump readiness.

Advisory Report: Alternatively, your BER Advisory Report must show your walls and roof as being rated ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’.

Confirming eligibility is tricky and depends on the age of your home and your current BER status.

If you have a BER (Post-July 2021): You likely have the new-format Advisory Report. You can check this immediately to see your current HLI and wall/roof ratings.

If you have a BER (Pre-July 2021): These older reports don’t display this level of detail. The full data would need to be requested from the SEAI for review, which usually requires professional assistance.

If you don’t have a BER: You will likely need a pre-BER assessment to check eligibility and determine if upgrades to your attic or walls are required first.

Note on 2005-2010 Homes: Houses in this age bracket often meet the ‘Good’ wall and roof definitions by default due to the building regulations of that time.

In all cases, a final BER is required to claim the grant. If you are relying on an existing BER to check compliance, it makes sense to use the same assessor for the final BER to ensure consistency. If starting from scratch, most assessors, including ourselves, now offer a combined ‘pre-and-post’ BER service for these grants.

Finally, keep in mind that this is a ‘whole house’ upgrade. You cannot get the grant to replace just a few windows while leaving poor-performing ones behind. If you’ve upgraded some windows recently (within the last 10 years), they likely already meet the 1.4 U-value and can be retained, provided you can supply a Declaration of Performance from the original supplier.

As always, if you would like to get in touch about anything in this article or your own retrofit project, feel free to reach out: ruairi@retrofurb.ie.

Gardening By John Hosford

As April unfolds, the days are lengthening, and with the clocks having shifted forward to Summer Time at the end of March, we now enjoy those extra evening hours. This extended daylight offers a wonderful opportunity to catch up on various gardening tasks. There’s plenty to do this month, from seed sowing both indoors and outdoors to weeding, planting, and pruning.

Cut back evergreen shrubs

Start by cutting back evergreen shrubs. It’s an ideal time to prune Mediterranean shrubs such as lavender and rosemary; make sure to cut them back to healthy buds. Avoid trimming into old, lifeless wood, as this may not reshoot. Plants like Fatsia, Hebe, and Escallonia can benefit from a light trim, while Ceanothus, Choisya, Daphne, Mahonia, Rhododendrons, Camellias, Azaleas, and Sarcococca should be pruned after flowering, ideally in May or June.

Deadhead daffodils 

Deadheading daffodils and other spring bulbs is essential after the flowers have faded. This practice diverts energy back into the bulbs, helping them bulk up for an even better display next year. If you have water lilies that have outgrown their space, now is the time to divide them. Carefully remove the plant and use a sharp knife to cut the root ball into sections, ensuring each has at least one shoot and some roots. Replant these sections into pond baskets filled with aquatic compost.

Feed trees, shrubs and perennials

Feeding trees, shrubs, and perennials is also crucial this month. Specialised feeds are available for lime-hating plants like Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Camellias, Skimmias, Sarcococca, and Kalmia, which will thrive with an application. Roses should also receive their monthly feed with a special rose fertiliser, followed by another application in May and June. When applying fertiliser, spread it out at a distance proportional to the height of the tree or bush, as roots typically expand to a distance equal to the plant’s height.

Vegetable garden

In the vegetable garden, sow peas in a sunny, sheltered position, planting them in a flat-bottomed trench about 5cm deep and 15cm wide, spacing them 7.5 cm apart in a single row or in two rows 30 cm apart. Remember to support them with robust wire netting. For potatoes, plant out second early and maincrop varieties, ensuring second earlies are set 30cm apart in rows 30cm apart and maincrops 37 cm apart. Earthing up first earlies protects the stems from cold weather and encourages more tubers to form. This process can be repeated as later varieties emerge above ground. Protect young crops with a double layer of extra-strength frost protection fleece, cloches, or cold frames.

You can also sow carrots and cabbages in prepared beds, covering them with fleece or insect-proof mesh to protect against carrot fly and cabbage white butterflies, whose larvae can devastate brassicas like cabbages, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Additionally, sow courgettes, vegetable marrows, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, melons, sweet corn, runner beans, and both bush and climbing French beans in 10 cm pots in a heated, frost-free area indoors. You can plant one seed per pot or two and select the strongest seedling once they emerge. These can be moved outdoors at the end of May or early June after hardening off.

Tomato plants can be planted in their fruiting quarters this month, whether in greenhouse soil, grow-bags, or large pots. Trailing varieties are perfect for hanging baskets or window boxes but must be kept frost-free.

Fruit garden

In the fruit garden, mulch raspberry canes with organic matter such as well-composted garden compost or stable manure. If those aren’t available, the excellent Gee-up from Blarney, Co. Cork, is a great substitute and widely available in garden outlets throughout Cork County. Indoors, geraniums, pelargoniums, fuchsias, and streptocarpus should now start receiving regular weekly liquid feeds. A seaweed-based fertiliser works well, and these plants should be fed weekly until early October to encourage healthy growth and blooming.

Citrus trees should begin receiving special citrus feed. Once the frost has passed at the end of May, they can be moved outdoors, provided they have drainage holes. Houseplants will require more frequent watering, and it’s best to stand them in a sink while watering, allowing them to drain without standing in water for more than 30 minutes.

April flowers

April also brings a delightful array of flowering plants. Bergenia showcases white, pink, and red flowers on glossy, leathery leaves and serves as excellent ground cover for early colour. Brunnera, with its green and variegated varieties, offers dainty blue flowers. The profuse blooms of crab apples are followed by attractive autumn fruit, while dogs tooth violets present low, clump-forming bulbs for shade. Dicentra spectabilis, or bleeding heart, boasts tall, elegant foliage.

Exochorda produces profuse white flowers, while Fritillaria persica captivates with purple spires of bloom, best planted as bulbs in autumn. Flowering cherries offer a stunning display of pink and white flowers, and some varieties feature attractive polished bark. Pulmonaria provides early colour in low-growing shades of blue, red, and white. Many rhododendron varieties will be in bloom this month, thriving in lime-free, ericaceous compost and benefiting from annual feed with a specific Rhododendron/Azalea fertiliser. Tulips will also be in flower, presenting a variety of colours, so remember to protect them from slugs.

For bedding and patio plants, containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets can now be planted and established in a greenhouse. Use fresh compost and include a slow-release fertiliser. Ensure window boxes have drainage outlets before planting.

Lastly, keep your lawn in check by mowing regularly, starting with the blades at their highest setting. Gradually lower the setting by the end of the month. Feed established lawns, aerate to rake out thatch, and give your lawn a spring feed. If you’re establishing new lawns, prepare the ground properly.

April is a vibrant month in the garden, full of opportunities to nurture and enjoy your plants. 

Happy gardening!

Canine Corner by Liz Mahony

Since my youth, I’ve been an avid people and animal watcher totally fascinated by interactions between the human and animal species. And it has never lost its appeal for me. So, over the beautiful weekend we experienced a fortnight ago, I took Saffron, my Boxer, into Dunmanway, to sit outside my favourite cafe to watch the world go by in the town square. She particularly loves this pastime, believing that anyone who appears on the pavement is specifically interested in saying hello to her

Not only that, the girls in the cafe spoil her, bringing out a bowl of water especially for her and giving her cuddles. She’s a gentle dog and affectionately leans into them, appreciating all the attention. There are only two small tables with four chairs outside the building, set pretty close together. While we were sitting there, a lady, having placed her order at the counter inside, arrived out and began hovering around the second table, making it obvious that Saffron was bothering her. I might add that Saffron was, in fact, sitting on my left side, and furthest from this person.

Yes, she was looking hopeful to make her acquaintance but, other than that, her manners were impeccable!

During the ensuing conversation, it transpired that this woman had had dogs in her childhood and had experienced no problems with them or any others. However, a recent encounter with her brother’s dog had frightened her because he had allowed him to bark at her in an intimidating manner, which made her feel very uneasy. Despite her discomfort, instead of dealing with the dog’s bad behaviour, her brother suggested that all she had to do was say ‘hello’ to the dog and stroke him which would appease him!

I fully understand that many of us are less than sympathetic to our siblings when they appear to overreact to a given situation but in this instance I was able to sympathise with her plight. She realised that her own fear was exacerbating the circumstances but there was much more to this.

Firstly, her brother was allowing his dog to behave rudely to visitors instead of teaching a more polite way to ‘meet and greet’ them. Suggesting that his sister approach the dog stroke him in order to calm him down was quite a feat. Not only that, by condoning this action, both his sister and the dog’s owner were simply reinforcing this bad behaviour, and over time, this appeasement rather than education, could lead to an escalation of it.

Let’s put this scenario into human terms. Would it be in order for a child to rudely confront a visitor and intimidate him/her? I think not! And would we, as parents, allow it? Again, I think not. Then why do we allow a dog to do it? It’s unjust to both dog and visitor.

The lady in question couldn’t believe that Saffron wasn’t barking at her. But then, she hadn’t really looked at her in a meaningful way. She just imagined that because her brother’s dog was ill-mannered and confrontational, ergo, all dogs are like that. When you translate that view into general terms, it means that, as dog owners, we are starting off at a disadvantage. People seem prepared to believe the worst in others – and, more importantly, their dogs. It puts a huge responsibility on us, as owners, to prove them wrong, not for our own sakes but for the good of our precious canines.

The more people decide that dogs are all ill-mannered, likely to bite, noisy or confrontational, the more open spaces, towns, and so on, are going to become ‘no-go’ areas for us and our companions. And the more that happens, the harder it will be to re-open those spaces to us. And if that occurs, it will be even harder to convince people, other than dog owners, that our canine companions are actually welcome in our urban and country life.

Where can we start to remedy this situation? Firstly, I think we have to prove to others that our dogs can behave politely in all situations. That means training them at home and socialising them outside the family milieu – just like I was doing with Saffron on that Saturday. It means teaching our dogs to behave on every occasion and rewarding them for it.

Secondly, we really have to address this business of picking up after our dogs in towns and areas where there will be human contact. Apart from the hygienic point of view, it doesn’t look so good seeing dog excrement left lying on pavements and, as already said, it doesn’t help our case for allowing us to socialise our dogs in any and all areas. In doing so, we might help others to see our well-behaved dogs as pleasant individuals rather than an unruly collective!

John Coughlan reviews ‘The Greatest Show on Earth: The Inside Story of the Legendary 1970 World Cup’ by Andrew Downie.

The cover of ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ by Andrew Downie shows Pelé with a raised fist, held in the arms of his teammate Jairzinho. It is one of the most iconic images in football, taken after Pelé scored the first of Brazil’s four goals against Italy in the final of the 1970 World Cup. 

That World Cup, hosted by Mexico, was the first to be televised in colour. It was also the first to feature red and yellow cards and to permit up to two substitutions which previously were only permitted in the case of injury. 

The Brazil team that won the final used none, with the same eleven players starting and finishing the 90 minutes.  

The 1970s with Pelé, Cruyff, and Beckenbauer, to name a few of the luminaries of the time, may well have been the heyday of football. I was not around for that World Cup in 1970 (I was born in the 80s), but it seems that for many who were, that competition was the very apogee of the sport. 

Andrew Downie is one such person. 

His book is an unusual one in many ways. It describes every single game in the 1970 World Cup. It was a tournament of memorable matches and moments, but some games – take for example the nil all between hosts Mexico and the USSR in the first game of the tournament – don’t necessarily warrant much description at all. 

The author adds descriptions here and there, helping the reader understand the context of each game. But for the most part, the action is described by the participants – players, coaches, hangers on. The accounts can’t have been given directly to the author, rather it seems he extracted them from other accounts – books, magazines, or whatever. 

The book is a real challenge to something I have come to realise when reading books about football – the football itself is rarely the most interesting part. But this book is all about the football, with little of the off-field colour that usually brings football books to life. 

But it does make for interesting reading, especially when the accounts of players from opposing teams contrast and contradict each other. In Brazil’s intense and dirty encounter with Uruguay in the semi-final, Pelé not only got away with an elbow on Uruguayan defender Dagoberto Fontes, he got a freekick himself for doing it. 

Downie quotes Fontes as saying Pelé caught him in the eye with a deliberate and very violent act. For his part, Pelé says he did it in self-defence, a kind of Minority Report situation, anticipating that he was about to be fouled, he lashed out, landing an elbow on Fontes for intending to foul The King. It seems the ref agreed with Pelé.

If you were to read this book in isolation, it might be a little on the dry side, but with Youtube allowing you to watch the matches being described by the participants, their accounts really do come alive. 

The television producers behind the broadcast of that World Cup seemed to have been so excited by the arrival of colour that they made the surprising choice of really – and I mean really – enhancing the colour. This is not the colour of the ordinary world, there is some pre-Instagram filter that really makes it pop. 

Brazil look beautiful in their luminous canary yellow. The pitches are greener than any grass I have ever walked on. Even England look swish in their all-white kit, a la Real Madrid. 

I found this book interesting because it gave me the opportunity to look at matches and moves, I wouldn’t have otherwise. I had seen Carlos Alberto’s goal in the final many times, but I hadn’t seen Tostao’s assist for Clodoaldo goal in the semis. It’s magic. I had seen Gordon Banks famous save from Pelé, but I hadn’t seen Felix, the Brazilian keeper, pull off an almost equally impressive save from a Franny Lee header in the same game. 

If you are interested in a deep dive into the most lauded of all the World Cups, the book is worthwhile, just make sure you have your phone to hand so you can watch the action in all its technicolour glory. 

John Coughlan co-hosts the Dynamo Football Bookclub, available wherever you get your pods.

With Easter upon us it is perhaps timely to dwell on a painting, which not only resonates with the season, but also articulates the horror that continues to unfold in the Middle East and Ukraine. This is Marc Chagall’s ‘Golgotha’ of 1912, perhaps the most luminous, prismatic painting of the crucifixion in art history. It differs from all others in its non-literal transformation of the biblical scene: in place of an adult Christ is a blue child, ‘crucified’ on the arc of an emerald green sky. It is a deeply mysterious vision, one that speaks more, perhaps, of resurrection, rebirth and renewal, than death. And yet it also invites a darker interpretation, one more prescient to our times: that of the child of the Middle East, the child of Ukraine, crucified by war.

Chagall, a Russian Jew, was not one to be confined by conventions, whether they were pictorial, religious or otherwise. As a Jew, images were largely proscribed, and symbolic Christian images, unthinkable. In painting the crucifixion, the young artist from Vitebsk (Belarus) charted a course that broke completely with Jewish cultural norms. When, later in life, he was invited by the newly formed state of Israel to decorate the interior of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), it came with a caveat: there was to be no Christian imagery, a condition Chagall quietly ignored. It wasn’t that he was pro-Christian, it was the fact that the figure of Christ was a part of his personal metaphoric language, a visual lexicon of images which sought to transcend politics and religion, in its depiction of love, suffering, beauty and eternity.

There is no doubt that his ‘Golgotha’ of 1912 is all four of these things. Chagall had a mysterious ability to evoke the eternal in everything he touched. The arc of the child’s open mouth is echoed by the large circle inscribed in the sky behind him, and by the prismatic arcs in the luminous red ground below. The line rhymes and echo shapes, employed throughout, enable everything to visually resound; nothing is static, everything is alive. In employing a programme of prismatic arcs and intersecting spheres, Chagall achieved a magical unity, at once terrifying in its imagery and beautiful in its manifestation. The result is an image which echoes forever in the mind. 

In 2005, I wrote several poems which dreamt themselves, in part, out of Chagall’s painting. One of these was called ‘Blinded Lethe’ (Lethe was a river of the Greek underworld, which invited oblivion): “I am breathless with discovery / And wounded by the glare / Of the gored and shrapnelled child / Bronze fists of anger immeasurable / A wing of leaden death / You make me transparent  / With your pain / Now I understand Christ / Whose limbs flared and shone / Like mirrors / Like glass / Which shattered and fell / In a rain of transcending passion / Upon the fields / Of blinded Lethe / Who, feeling glass soft as snow / Looked up in astonishment / At the son of man.”

The ‘child’ referenced in this poem occurs periodically in my work, and could be thought of as an archetype for the ‘wounded child.’ The poem itself is driven by an incandescent (and impotent) rage at the power-hungry architects of war, with the ‘wounded child’ being their ever-constant victim. The most recent atrocity – the bombing of a school in Iran – resonates Chagall’s ‘Golgotha’ one hundred times over. By saying this I do not mean to diminish such a heart-numbing loss of so many children to a neat line in an article, but to indicate that art is a quivering limb of life, that it is called to address the most urgent questions of our existence.

That is what archetypes are for, and his employment of them is partly why Chagall’s work is so enduring. His mysterious transformation of the archetype in ‘Golgotha,’ its resounding play of arcs and spheres, its deep, prismatic colour, is why I return to it again and again, every Easter; not as a window into a religious rite, but as a dark, pulsing emblem of suffering, as a reminder of art’s purpose, of its empathic power.

Chagall himself said of this painting, in a conversation with Franz Meyer: “Strictly speaking, there was only a blue child in the air. The Cross was of less interest to me.” The vision he had – palpable, non-verbal, mysterious – was everything. That is the truly creative space: the crucible in which spiritual treasures are born.