Other Voices
Patterns in Repeat
“Patterns in Repeat sounds like an ode to both the beginning of life and its continuity; to everything that, for better or worse, we are made to encounter again.”
That’s how Pitchfork concluded it’s review of Laura Marling’s new album, Patterns in Repeat, and the crowds who will congregate at St James’ Church for Marling’s sold-out show at Other Voices in Dingle can expect to hear lots of the riches of this tender new disc, amidst a welter of other fab music..
And when you find yourself walking and driving around the town and the peninsula and humming some Marling melodies, here are Three Discoveries not to miss when in Dingle.
Ventry P.O. is a tabernacle of temptations. It’s the P.O. where you will find the Pet Nat.
This tiny shop and post office, a few miles west of Dingle on the Slea Head Drive, is clearly the spot where the local rainbows end. Because Ventry PO is the crock of gold, no less, and a safe haven for all the good things in life.
The wine selection, for example, is superb, the sort of well-sourced range that is so hard to find away from the big cities. If there are bottles from afar, there are treasures from near, not least the local black puddings made in the Kerry-style in the village of Sneem, on the adjacent peninsula, by PJ Burns, who mixes oatmeal, sheep fat, onions and spices together then bakes his pudding for three hours. It’s a beauty, a real Kerry treasure.
Roisin and Seamus and the team also collate meats from other local butchers, and they have the splendid fresh milk and cheese from Dingle Farm, made by Mai and Tommy Bruic.
In addition to the locals, all the good Irish artisan brands are here, with oils and condiments from Lilliput, biscuits and crackers from Isle of Crackers, a wide selection of the best artisan cheeses and yogurts, and rarities such as kombucha from 4Hands Farm and Shines seafood pates from Killybegs.
There are bags of local spuds from Paul Fenton, and bags of local greens and salad leaves from Na Dathanna, and good candles so that you can make your holiday rental into a home just by striking a match.
Ventry PO is as essential a stop on the Slea Head Drive as Louis Mulcahy Pottery, Dunquin Pier, the Blasket Centre, the Gallarus Oratory and Holden Leathergoods. The Ui Luing family have been running the store for five generations, yet they have the energy and enthusiasm of folk who only got the doors opened this morning.
On a fine day, make sure to take your coffee to the seats across the road, and let your heart melt at the awesome sight of Ventry beach and the hills of the peninsula.
“This is real milk” is how Tommy and Mai Bruic describe the raw material that they transform into a delicious array of milk, buttermilk, fresh cheeses, yogurts and hard cheeses, at Dingle Farm.
The Bruic’s use their single-herd Fresian milk well, capturing that grassy, herbaceous, fresh sweetness in all their products. This is the taste of the Ballydavid grasslands, the perfect pasture-to-palm-to-product that speaks of its place of origin. The soft cheese won gold at the 2024 Irish Cheese Awards, and won the Dingle Food Festival Trail Award in October. For us, everything Mai and Tommy make is a winner.
When you visit Dingle, and the Dingle Peninsula, then you simply must drink West Kerry beers, because there are no other beers like the West Kerry beers.
Adrienne Heslin’s beers don’t exploit any of the craft beer touchstones that other Irish brewers mine in order to craft their brews. Instead, the West Kerrys seem like pure sports of nature, fashioned out of some West Kerry wildness, and magical water, and a brew team who feel no constraints.
But, if there is a path to understanding their singularity, it lies in the fact that the beers are top fermented in open-top fermenters using an old English strain of yeast. So, if something in your brain says: English bitter from a great brewer! then you are on the path.
Truth is, however, that the West Kerry beers are vastly superior to any other bitters, which we might explain by the fact that Adrienne uses well water from her own well, way out there on the Slea Head, close to the lovely Wine Strand.
If you are going to Other Voices, then make sure to hear the Unique Voices that craft West Kerry beers, Dingle cheeses, and Post Offices for the Gods.
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