Food vs Art

Why is Ireland's arts culture stronger than its food culture? And what can we do about it?

So, I return to again to the perennial question of my adult life: Why is Ireland's arts culture stronger than its food culture? Is it simply a question of funding? And if so, why?

As the many summer festivals get going soon in Galway, such as the Film Fleadh and the Galway Arts Festival (both icons of the year in my eyes), with ample funding by the Arts Council and Failte Ireland, I reflect on the paltry state of funding for food festivals in the city where I have made my home for the last twenty years.¹

It will come to some as no surprise, but this year Food on the Edge (which celebrates its 10th year) will receive no funding from either Galway city or County Council or Failte Ireland, Bord Bia, and Tourism Ireland. Rather than only being disappointed in the ways in which food festivals are considered secondary to other festivals (which involve art or sport) in this wonderful green isle of Ireland, I wanted to reflect around the ways in which we have come to this position.

How did we get here?

Why is it so?

How can we change it?

It should come as no surprise that Ireland’s arts culture is considered stronger and more internationally recognized than its food culture due to historical, cultural, social, and economic factors. But what are the reasons for this. First, we would have to look at our historical priorities on the island and the way in which food was seen as a vehicle for survival. Ireland's food traditions were severely impacted by colonization and the Great Famine (1845–1852). Food was often seen as subsistence rather than culture due to poverty and deprivation.

The focus of land was to produce food, not culture.

For most of the 20th century, Ireland's cultural identity was actively preserved and expressed through literature, drama, and language as resistance against British colonial rule. Figures like W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, James Joyce, Marina Carr, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Samuel Beckett, Edna O’Brien, and others established a global reputation for Irish culture in the arts and abroad.

Art was thus linked to our cultural identity and to the expression of ourselves. We expressed ourselves through language and storytelling, then we had a cup of tea and some toast, or a pint of Guinness and followed a whiskey or two. Food was never meant to be cultural. We had music, sport, and art: who needed food? It was only a vehicle for moving, a thing to placate hunger.

How can a people of the land not have a food culture?

Irish cultural expression has traditionally emphasized narrative forms—poetry, song, drama, storytelling—partly due to the Irish language’s rich oral tradition which dates back millennium. Historically, Ireland's food was simple, practical, and often overshadowed by British culinary traditions, particularly from the 16th century onwards. The native Irish grew to experience a lack of culinary heritage. They were denied the visibility of a viable pathway to their own food culture and the ways in could give meaning to their lives. Up to the latter half the 20th century, this limited Irish food cultures global recognition and its ability to grew into something worth talking about, worth dining for. If food was going to hace culture, it was going to be French.

Ireland has historically had strong governmental support for literature, theatre, and arts through institutions like the Arts Council, Abbey Theatre, and various literary festivals and programs. Indeed, The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, established in 1904 by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory was notably the first state-subsidized national theatre in the English-speaking world. In 1925, the Abbey Theatre received a government subsidy, funded by the newly independent Irish Free State. This was symbolically critical as a statement of Irish cultural independence and national identity following independence from Britain in 1922 and demonstrated progressive support by the new Irish government for national arts and cultural development.

But where was our food? What was the first government of Ireland’s intention when it came to food and national identity? And what did food mean to us culturally at the outset of our own nationhood?

In 1922, the newly established Irish Free State had ambitious plans to reshape Irish national identity through cultural revival, but its early policies regarding food were initially pragmatic rather than explicitly cultural or symbolic. Nonetheless, several governmental actions and social movements indirectly influenced food, eventually aligning it more closely with a distinct Irish identity. But that was a little way off to begin with.

Initially, agriculture policies focused primarily on economic independence rather than explicit cultural symbolism. The realm of art after all was made for symbolism. Potatoes and milk were not.

After independence, the government intensified land redistribution efforts, breaking up large estates under the 1923 Land Act, creating small family farms as the cornerstone of rural life.

This strengthened local food production. However, this led to a focus on agricultural self-sufficiency and a policy of "economic nationalism" as opposed to being a cultural art of artistic value. By introducing tariffs and protectionist measures to safeguard domestic agriculture, food become a commodity in the minds of people. While this indirectly promoted Irish produce and food culture, it did not give food any value in and off itself. That is to say, it did not contribute to food in terms of a cultural value other than as a means of hunger and sustenance.

Early Free State leaders, notably Minister for Agriculture Patrick Hogan (1922–32), encouraged native food produce to distinguish the new state economically and symbolically from British rule. The government supported dairy co-operatives and creamery networks to boost butter and cheese production, creating iconic products like Irish butter as symbols of rural Ireland. However, this opened Ireland up to being a nation of producers as opposed to consumers. One could argue that Ireland's Farmhouse Cheese movement stems from these early food policies.

For most, the cultural capital of food was exported and the native Irish received payment in kind. No artistic merit was placed on food production.

It was all toil and soil.

Even the poet Patrick Kavanagh struggled to make food shine in his stony grey poems.

During this time of post-independence, the government indirectly supported cultural nationalist organizations emphasizing Gaelic revival, which included traditional food culture. The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), though established earlier, influenced state educational curricula from the 1920s onwards, indirectly promoting Irish language, tradition, and food culture. Cooking recipes published in Irish-language materials subtly reinforced traditional Irish foods as culturally valuable. But these policies, like the ways in which the Irish language was taught, fell afoul of bureaucracy.

The Free State government did though indirectly shape attitudes toward Irish food through schools and rural education. Domestic science education (Home Economics) encouraged (primarily women) the preparation of Irish traditional dishes (potatoes, oats, soda bread, dairy products), reinforcing their place in everyday Irish life. Yet this gender bias further reduced food, especially its cooking, to something feminine and domestic, a thing not fit for the male population. It was all sustenance without culture.

I still recall being only one of three boys to do Home Economics in the 1990s in Scoil Dara in Kilcock, Co. Kildare. I can’t imagine figures have changed much in the last thirty-five years.

Despite the supported of agricultural education programs which reinforced rural foodways and self-sufficient living, no major culinary culture emerged to align itself with our national narrative.

So where was Ireland’s culinary identity and how did it evolve? Although initially modest, by the 1930s and later decades, Irish governments increasingly recognized food as symbolic of cultural identity, marking the early policies as foundational for later developments. Famously, Éamon de Valera romantically celebrated rural life, subtly reinforcing traditional diets (potatoes, soda bread, butter, milk, bacon) as culturally authentic and part of the Gaelic ideal. This contributed to a stagnancy in developing a food cultural policy which was forward thinking.

We were the land of potato-eaters after all, and we should be happy with that. If you wanted food sophistication, look for it elsewhere.

Yet, by the mid-20th century, successive governments explicitly integrated food into broader tourism, heritage, and cultural policies, eventually embedding traditional Irish food into national identity. However (and this is the big however) food always took a back seat to tourism. In my opinion, all food cultural policy was laissez-faire, in other words: ‘the tourists are coming anyway, and they have to eat, so we don’t need to develop anything.’

Until recently, food and hospitality were not heavily prioritized as a cultural export, nor strongly institutionalized or marketed internationally. Though we have had some limited succusses in terms of marketing our food abroad (in the last fifteen years), this practice has mostly been abandoned post-covid or reduced to tagging food broadly on to other general activities in Ireland.

While Ireland has made significant strides in recent decades through the rise of chefs, restaurants, and local artisanal producers, this global recognition has been comparatively fragmented with the question around a uniquely Irish food culture being a constant stumbling block when it comes to what to promote about Irish food.

We suffer from a reactive attitude towards food: while our music, film, and literature can be modern, the sense is that food must remain shrouded in the mist of the Celtic Twilight. Raw scallops and burnt wild roses could not be symbols of Irish food: that honour must remain with potatoes, brown bread, and Irish stew?

Why is this so? Is it down to a lack of culinary confidence?

In contrast to this piecemeal and haphazard attitude to our food culture, Ireland’s arts culture has long been internationally recognized and promoted as a cultural tourism driver, attracting visitors through festivals, theaters, museums, and literary heritage sites. Irish literary and artistic figures are globally prestigious, contributing to Ireland’s image as a culturally significant country. From Martin McDonagh to Fontaines D.C, Irish arts have a strong contemporary image abroad. They inspire.

How do we achieve this in terms of our food culture?

Elevating Ireland's food culture nationally and internationally would involve a coordinated approach that combines storytelling, strategic investment, and cultural pride from public and private partners.

Food culture thrives on stories.

Ireland’s food must be seen as part of its broader cultural identity within the arts. In other words, we need to elevate Irish food as an art and stop treating it as something different. Food Festivals, or other such food events, to the best of my knowledge, can not apply for Arts Council or Creative Ireland funding, unless they are performative as opposed to practical.

To achieve a more concrete food culture, we need to invest more in cookbooks, documentaries, podcasts, and magazines highlighting the history, sustainability, and regional diversity of Irish food, all of which could be support by a similiar model to the art at the moment. We need to highlight chefs and food producers as cultural ambassadors through media and public appearances, linking them to the Irish arts, such as theatre, literature, and arts festivals.

The annual budget for the Arts Council is in the region of €160 million. Imagine if a Food Council had similar funding to promote food as a cultural enterprise?

Why are there no cooking demonstrations at Irish Arts or Opera Festivals? Is cooking to ‘low’ at art form to be represented? The Spanish would strongly disagree, but they have spent the last fifty years elevating food to an art form, a sport, and a fortuitous cultural experience. We only need to mention the name El Bulli to be transported into the world of food and art and simultaneous (and not antagonistic) experience.

Strategic public funding and policy can rapidly raise the status of food culture. A National Irish Food Council needs to be established to actively promote Irish food culture domestically and abroad. Currently, there is no government agency minding food as a cultural experience. Bord Bia look after it as a commodity and an export. That is to say, they look after the practical aspects of food production.

The food cultural sphere also needs more grants and investment specifically aimed at culinary innovation and preservation of traditional methods, as well as identifying iconic Irish culinary practices, products, or traditions (such as soda bread, butter production, or whiskey-making) for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status. There is no point funding the arts in terms of millions of euros, and food in the thousands of euros and expecting things to change.

What else do we need to do to change this bias?

Elevating food culture requires nurturing professional excellence and respect within culinary careers. As well as investing in advanced training facilities and culinary research institutions, such as dedicated Irish food and drink research hubs, we also need to encourage more academic courses linking food to Irish history, archaeology, and anthropology.

Ireland’s culinary reputation should reflect both authenticity and innovation, modernism and tradition.

State tourism bodies and destination marketing need to place food first (or at least not last, or not at all) in terms of the promotion, creating compelling international narratives, that centre around food festivals and culinary tourism. There is no point building experiential structures around the country without considering food. The visitor Centre in Lough Boora is a case is point. Despite 300,000 annual guests, the food offer is paltry, inadequate and without merit. The food should speak of a sense of place, through whatever means possible.

The new Irish Food Council should appoint internationally recognized Irish chefs as official ambassadors for tourism and food culture, engaging international influencers and culinary journalists through media events and culinary diplomacy initiatives.

To achieve an elevated food culture, there needs to be a balance between tradition and modern culinary creativity. More time needs to be spent on Ireland’s distinctive produce (seaweed, farmhouse cheeses, seafood, heritage grains, native breeds) as well as establishing more protected designations (like PDO, PGI) to ensure authenticity and build prestige through a European lens. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. Many European countries already have food cultural policies and project that we can mirror and learn from to strengthen our local and regional food future.

A strong national food culture must grow organically from thriving regional identities. It must be community driven. Food Cooperatives and local networks need funding to build stronger connections between producers, chefs, and hospitality businesses to amplify local food economies. This would encourage “slow food” initiatives that could emphasizing Irish biodiversity and regional terroir.

In turn this could lead to greater regional identity and pride, developing region-specific branding (Connemara lamb, Cork farmhouse cheeses, Wexford strawberries, Ballymakenny potatoes) to foster pride and recognition of Irish regions’ culinary distinctions.

In the long term, a National Food Council could position Ireland as a leader in sustainable food production and ethical gastronomy, promoting greater transparency in Irish food sourcing and ethical standards to appeal to eco-conscious consumers globally. Like the Arts Council (in terms of funding the best of art), a Food Council could support organic farming, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable fishing through policy incentives, thereby achieving a ‘best practice’ of food in Ireland.

By integrating these strategies—emphasizing narrative, education, governmental support, marketing, innovation, regional pride, and sustainability—Ireland’s food culture can be elevated to match the richness, depth, and international recognition of its arts.

The future is food.

The future is ours.

Jp.

21st June, 2025.

1. This is not the case in every city and county in Ireland. Cork and Waterford are two examples of a food forward council in Ireland.