Though subjects of enduring interest in their own right, food and drink are still more revealing archaeologically and historically when they amplify and illuminate broader societal behaviours and trends. This multi-disciplinary collection of fourteen essays explores the collection, cultivation, consumption and culture of food and drink in Ireland from the beginnings of settlement in the Mesolithic to the present. Among its themes, it engages with what the first settlers gathered; how people ate in Neolithic times; cooking in the Bronze Age; the diet of rich and poor in the medieval era; the impact of conquest on culinary patterns; the differences in the diet of different classes in pre-Famine and the impact of the Famine; the history of haute cuisine in Ireland; the impact of modernisation in the twentieth century, and the changing role of drink in society.

This book was commissioned by the editors of the Royal Irish Academy's journal: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C.

Contributors: Graeme Warren, Jessica Smyth, Richard P. Evershed, Alan Hawkes, Cherie N. Peters, Susan Lyons, Fiona Beglane, Madeline Shanahan, James Kelly, Regina Sexton, Ian Miller, Rhona Richman Kenneally, Diarmaid Ferriter, Mairtin Mac Con Iomaire, Frank Armstrong.