A Change at Old Irish Recipes

A chara,

How have you been? I hope things are going well for you and your family.

The picture above is of our daughter, having an unexpected sleepover at my mothers house after a hospital dash on a stormy evening. My mother threw together a drawer and pillow as a cot and she had the best sleep, with me on the couch beside her. The baby picture behind her is my other daughter, her big sister. I love this photo. Drawers really do make great little beds.

I started Old Irish Recipes on Facebook four years ago as a little hobby when she was three while in lockdown. One of my favorite cookbooks is from the turn of the century and I would take it out at supper time and pretend to meal plan sheep’s brain’s with parsley sauce or fried eels to make my kids laugh before bed. As they got older, I told them about how their great-grandfather who they still visit,used to catch and eat blackbird when he was their age because he was hungry. I also told them how his wife, their glamour’s great-grandmother, didn’t go to school until she was eight because she had to help in her families honey farm. Apparently jarring organic honey is very far from glamourous. The next story to tell them tonight is that both their great-grandparents slept in drawers just like this photo.

As the Facebook page grew so did the bots after I posted a famine soup recipe so I started this newsletter. It is now four months old and thriving.

Up until now, Old Irish Recipes was relying on sponsorships to offset the running costs, but this is sporadic, doesn’t even cover the running costs and influences the stories that you see and I don’t want that to happen. I want you to trust that I will provide you with the best Irish heritage letters each week that bring you and your family true value and help you practice and pass on your Irish heritage.

So to keep the newsletter going we are moving to a €5 p/m sign up fee and forgoing sponsorships.

Your €5 covers the software used to design & send our newsletters, our hosting fees and the time it takes to write you an old Irish letter every week.

The weekly full Old Irish Recipes newsletter will continue to have the Irish Celtic calendar inspired recipes, reminders, folklore stories and unbiased recommendations now each Thursday, giving you a sense of peace that you are collecting, enjoying and passing on your Irish heritage to the next generation.

And our Instagram page @oldirishrecipes will have some micro posts as an alternative.

If you would like to continue on this journey with me, click on the upgrade button below. Thank you to all of our supporters both new and from the beginning. Your emails and messages have been wonderful.

If you would like to get in touch, you can do so either by tapping reply to this email, emailing me at [email protected] or through the poll response comments below.

I look forward to seeing you on next weeks newsletter and hearing from you and if not, take care.

Slán go fóill,

Róisín Hynes