PLATE      TECTONICS

The historical record shows the existence of vegans in Ireland since at least the mid-1600's. However, it was vegetarianism, not veganism, that was for a long time considered to be the logical end point of a cruelty-free diet and lifestyle. Public ignorance and industry propaganda combined to convince otherwise intelligent people that consuming another mammals milk was somehow beneficial, if not vital, for adult human health.

The first purely vegan restaurants didn't appear in Ireland until the short-lived Sseduced opened in Temple Bar in 2013, 122 years after the first vegetarian restaurant opened it doors and a mere ten minute walk away.

Now Dublin City has 13 dedicated vegan eateries*, and most other cities and towns in Ireland have a decent range of quality vegan, or-vegan-friendly, business, too many to mention here.

  * according to Happy Cow here - https://www.happycow.net/europe/ireland/dublin/?filters=vegan

GRADUALLY AT FIRST, THEN ALL OF A  SUDDEN - Its fair to say the vegan culinary scene in Ireland has changed beyond all recognition since about 2015 .This was the year when interest in veganism began to shift. Young people, particularly females, started showing a strong interest in the health and environmental benefits of "plant-based eating" and its been on a roll ever since. In fact, Ireland came in tenth place in a poll on the worlds most vegan-friendly countries, and Dublin topped a global list by a 2019 luxury travel company (Hayes and Jarvis) on the best vegan-friendly restaurants.

Ireland's State Food Board, Bord Bia, no less, estimated in their Dietary Lifestyles Report 2018 report ( see here - https://www.bordbia.ie/globalassets/bordbia.ie/industry/marketing-reports/consumer-reports/dietary-lifestyles-report-november2018.pdf?rel=outbound)  that about 4.1% (150,000) of the Irish population associated* with the  vegan diet, 8% with vegetarian and another 10.6 %  with Flexitarian.  These numbers are undoubtedly an  exponential increase from anytime before and they increased dramatically in the 3 years since that report was published. Bord Bia's latest Dietary Report from March 2021  ( https://www.bordbia.ie/globalassets/bordbia2020/industry/insights/new-publications/dietary-lifestyles/bordbia-thinkinghouse_dietary-lifestyle_ire.pdf)  notes the percentage of people associating with the Vegan diet in Ireland increased over threefold to a  whopping 14% by 2020. The amount associating with Vegetarianism and Flexitarianism both almost doubled to 14% and  19% respectively. That's essentially half of Irelands 2020 population trending (or at least aspiring to trend) away from animal products, either completely or partially, and that number will only have since increased. Note the word associating.

 Under the reports separate heading "Adherence to this diet in terms of food consumption/behaviour", the numbers are significantly lower, but still significant. Between Bord Bia's 2018 report and 2021 report, vegan food consumption more than quadrupled from 0.4% to 2% of the Nations total food consumption, for Vegetarians it went from 6% to 8% and for Flexitarians it rose from 10% to 16%. In other words, over one quarter (26%) of Irish people in 2020 had deliberately eliminated or significantly reduced their consumption of animal body parts and  bovine secretions, and another quarter would like to. If these trends continue the near future might  see a dramatic switch in the nations eating habits. 

  * (FIRST BASE - It's a little unclear what Bord Bia, or the studies participants, mean by "associating" with, but not adhering to, a vegan or vegetarian diet etc. I take it to mean these people aspire to be a vegan but haven't 'gone all the way' yet).

​

​

INSIDE THE RESTAURANTS AT THE HEART OF REVOLUTION - The first Vegetarian restaurant to open its doors in Ireland was probably in Belfast in 1890, established by Antrim man Leonard McCaughy. It gets a brief mention in a report written by the Belfast Vegetarian Society in 1890. The restaurants name is not mentioned and little else is known about it. 

Next came Dublin's  Sunshine Vegetarian Dining Rooms at 48 Grafton Street in 1891. A review of the restaurant notes good food and the place being "extremely patronised" since opening.(Irish Times, 28 August 1891.)

 Established by the Dublin Vegetarian Society, the venture lasted about a year before closure. Little else is known about the restaurant except it offered "luncheons, dinners, special afternoon teas in delightfully pleasant  rooms" (The Irish Times, 28 August 1891).

This humble beginning was merely an aperitif for what was to shortly come.

​

​

​

​

 

In 1899, the College Vegetarian Restaurant was opened by Leonard McCaughy and quickly proved to be popular amongst Dublin's small but growing vegetarian population. Intellectuals, playwrights and poets mixed with Indian students, suffragettes and revolutionaries over plates of vegetarian food. McCaughy actually had a chain of four vegetarian restaurants including in Belfast, Leeds and Glasgow. The Glasgow branch, situated on 6 Jamaca Street, is now a McDonalds.

The Dublin restaurant was a meeting place for Sinn Fein and the IRA prior to the 1916 rising and provided  revolutionary-minded Indian nationals residing in Dublin a place to meet with Irish nationalists and discuss ridding both countries of the British Empire. Not to be outdone by the Irish Farm Produce café in the drama stakes, the Irish Times (11 May 1912) reported that one of the restaurants chefs, a Mr  Leon  Cromblin, was discovered in the cellar of the premises with his throat badly cut and a razor by his side in an apparent suicide attempt. Its not known if he survived.

Offering "soups, savouries and sweets in great variety at popular prices", the Restaurant remained in business for a respectable 23 years, closing in  January 1922.

​

​

 

 

 

 

A mere ten minutes walk away at Located at 21 Henry Street was the Irish Farm Produce vegetarian restaurant , run by feminist, Republican and  vegetarian, Jenny Wyse Power. Also established in 1899  it was another another nexus of radicalism and food-centred politics. Powers broad political interests attracted a range of rebels and revolutionaries under one roof and the place quickly became a de facto rebel vegetarian canteen, meeting ground and arms dump. Future President Arthur Griffith  met other revolutionaries there every day in the year prior to the Rising. Indeed , it is this very establishment where 6 of the 7 signatories on the Irish Declaration of Independence, the leaders of the upcoming Rising, put pen to paper, in 1916.

Both of these buildings, filled as they were with undesirable revolutionary types, had undercover cops, known as G-Men, permanently stationed across the street, patiently noting down who was frequenting them. One G-mans notes write of Thomas McDonagh, one of the leaders of the Rising and a lecturer in UCD, being seen entering the Restaurant with another Sinn Fein activist, carrying a "heavy bag" containing guns.

In other words , these restaurants were the complete opposite to an average McDonalds, where all the wankers are on the inside, while the radicals are standing outside, handing out "What's wrong with McDonalds" leaflets.

The restaurant is even name checked in one of English literatures finest works no-one ever reads, Ulysses. This fact only recently came to light because no-one had read that far into the book until now.

​

I met him the day before yesterday and he coming out of that Irish farm dairy John Wyse Nolan’s wife has in Henry st with a jar of cream in his hand taking it home to his better half. She’s well nourished, I tell you.” James Joyce makes reference to the Irish Farm Produce restaurant in ‘Ulysses’.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE - The Irish Home Produce Café expanded its operations in 1916, opening up two bakeries  in Leeson Street and Camden Street. A barely visible sign from this premises still exists painted on the gable end wall of  Camden street. The words "Home made bread" remain, painted above a circular symbol, one of the 'made in Ireland' symbols used by the Irish Farm produce company.

​

During the Rising over Easter of 1916, Henry Street experienced looting and arson committed by both British soldiers and rebels but the Restaurant survived and in fact was busy providing food to the rebels holed up round the corner in Dublin's General Post Office. Throughout the first half of week of the Rising, vegetarian fayre was carried to the Rebels through holes made in the internal walls of buildings along the street to avoid British bullets.

Following the failed Uprising, the restaurant continued as the favourite haunt for the nations revolutionaries and was subject to raids by hostile, often drunk, Black and Tans, the British States counter-revolutionary punishment squads. The restaurant would be smashed up as they searched for guns but was always soon back in business.

As the failed 1916 Rising gave way to the victorious War of Independence in 1922, Jennie Wyse Power found herself and her restaurant the target of anti- Treaty IRA rebels. She had taken a pro-Treaty stance and fallen out with former comrades as a result. A Civil war ensued, pitting the newly-formed Free State/Old IRA army against anti-Treaty IRA rebels. This new IRA (not to be confused with the new New IRA) frequently attacked the property of those they now opposed. The Camden Street bakery was partially burned in 1922 when two bombs were thrown through its windows. In 1923 two young men entered and sat down at a table one afternoon, posing as  regular customers. As tea was being served, they suddenly jumped up and took firebombs out of their coats, shouting their intent  to burn the place down. The attempt failed to do much damage however. Nevertheless it seems the restaurant closed around this time, as Power became more involved in Free State politics, becoming a Senator in the new Irish Parliament. She died in 1941.

The Irish Farm Produce Cafe must surely one of Irelands, if not Europe's, most exciting eating establishments. Filled as it was with Rebels storing guns and bombs for an imminent revolution, Indian students plotting rebellion with famous Irish playwrights and poets, regular raids by inebriated, shell-shocked British Squaddies, arson attacks by IRA dissidents, open-mic nights, free deliveries to local revolutionary strongholds and "the best food in the easiest digestible form at an affordable cost" , there was never a dull moment. The place constantly teetered on the verge of exploding, both literally and metaphorically. And to think Anthony Bourdain thought he was a hard nut for snorting cocaine from a frozen pig carcase. Wanker.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

 

​

​

 

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOME PEOPLE GOT HOPES AND DREAMS/SOME PEOPLE GOT WAYS AND MEANS - Both Ireland and India experienced a similar historical trajectory since at least the 1850's on - both counties, though vastly different in size, had undergone Empire-induced famine and revolution and both strived for Home Rule, or more, by the turn of the 1900's. The Duel In the Crown and the Breadbasket of the Empire contained a growing middle class of natives who were vital for the smooth running of the System and by default knew also how to subvert the system.

So it was that when future Prime Minister of India V.V. Giri and a dozen more law students arrived in Dublin  in 1913, they entered a world of extreme poverty, strikes, lock-outs and boiling, imminent revolution. Giri and his compatriots studied for the Bar at Kings Inns and the recently established UCD, both hotbeds of Revolutionary Nationalism. They dined at one of the two Vegetarian restaurants in the City mentioned previously. Giri quickly developed his taste for revolution and anti-colonial struggle. He soon helped form the quaintly-named Anarchical Society with a fellow Indian student and made strong links with the Irish agitators he met over vegetarian lunches.

IN fact one of Giri's Lecturers at UCD was none other than Thomas McDonagh, soon to be executed by the British following the failed Rising, and Giri was particularly impressed by raging Socialist James Connolly. The two became close friends and Giri was deeply influenced by Connolly's attitude and tactics. Giri and fellow Indian students often attended Irish Citizen Army meetings, further developing their own plans for British withdrawal from India.

When Giri fled Dublin on orders from  the Police, he set up an Indian Transport and General Workers Union and organised one of the biggest strikes in India's history, complete with  a lockout of the workers but in this case the workers won the strike. He even set up a pacifist version of the Irish Volunteers called the Indian Volunteers. "I resolved to give a graphic account of these struggles to inspire our own people" he wrote later.

Many years later, when he became the fourth President of India, he noted "When I am not an Indian, I am an Irishman".

​

​

​

​