By James Brodell


Sunday is St. Patrick's Day, and plenty of Americans will be sitting down to what they think is a traditional Irish meal: corned beef and cabbage. With potatoes.

The cabbage certainly was an Irish mainstay, but the corned beef was pricey in 19th-century Ireland even though that nation produced most of the beef consumed elsewhere.

One could consider corned beef and cabbage more of a U.S. meal rather than Irish.

Those seeking a traditional Irish meal might better serve salt pork, even though most working-class Irish had meat infrequently until modern times.

Potatoes certainly are a traditional Irish food because the landlords found that the tuber grows quickly and produces a lot of calories. A typical working man's meal under British domination might have been four or five potatoes for dinner.

Of course, the potato, a South American vegetable, only appeared in Europe in the last few years of the 16th century. Many Europeans declined to partake for 100 more years because the potato was considered poison or at least food for the lower class. The plant is a member of the nightshade family, just like the close relative, the tomato.

Brian Boru, the Medieval high king of Ireland, may have feasted on beef, but in those years the cow was considered precious and more useful for milk and producing calves instead of decorating a dinner plate.

Beef was more available in America during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the salted or corned variety was considered a meal for the lower class and slaves. Irish immigrants, fleeing the ravages of the 1845 potato famine, were quick to embrace the plentiful beef in their new country. Hence the food became a tradition in the U.S. Irish instead of those in Ireland.

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James Brodell, A.M. Costa Rica editor emeritus, is a retired professor of journalism and a New York Metro area newspaper editor. He has studied U.S. open records and open meeting laws extensively. He can be reached at JBrodell@jamesbrodell.com   or Jay@amcostarica.com.

-Copyright James J. Brodell 2023 -