Cooking for Halloween? Try out these traditional Irish recipes before diving into your candy! Getty Images
These Irish Halloween recipes are centuries old, but are still wholesome and delicious for all your spooky costumed party monsters!
Hosting a Halloween party? You’ll have to get some real food into your guests’ bellies before diving into all that candy!
Check out these traditional Irish recipes for Halloween:
Irish Colcannon recipe for Halloween
This tasty dish is a popular favorite at Oíche Shamhna (Halloween) and is easy to make, especially with the kids. The word colcannon is from the Irish cal ceannan, which literally means “white-headed cabbage.”
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In the past, as is done with barmbrack, charms were mixed into the colcannon. Charms found were seen as a portent for the future. A button meant you would remain a bachelor, and a thimble meant you would remain a spinster for the coming year. A ring meant you would get married, and a coin meant you would come into wealth.
Some women filled their socks with colcannon and hung them from the handle of the front door in the belief that the first man through the door would become their future husband.
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Colcannon (Getty Images)
Colcannon Ingredients:
4 lbs potatoes, or about 7-8 large potatoes (‘old’ potatoes or russet potatoes are best, waxy potatoes won’t do)
1 green cabbage or Kale
1 cup milk or cream
1 stick of butter, divided into three parts
4-5 scallions (green onions), chopped
Salt and Pepper
Fresh Parsley or chives *Not everyone adds scallions to colcannon, but they are worth having, in my opinion.
How to make Colcannon:
Peel and boil the potatoes. Remove the core from the cabbage, slice it thinly, and place into a large saucepan. Cover with boiling water and keep at a slow rolling boil until the cabbage is just wilted and has turned a darker green. This can take between 3-5 minutes, depending on the cabbage. Test it and don’t let it overcook. If anything, it should be slightly undercooked.
When the cabbage is cooked, drain it well and squeeze to get any excess moisture out, then return to the saucepan.
Add one-third of the butter and cover. Leave it covered and in a warm place, but not on a burner, with the butter melting gently into it while you continue.
When the potatoes are soft, drain, and then return to the saucepan with the drained potatoes in. Put burner to low, leaving the lid off so that any excess moisture can evaporate.
When they are perfectly dry, add the milk to the saucepan along with a third of the butter and the chopped scallions (if you are using them). Allow the milk to warm but not boil – it is about right when the butter has fully melted into it and it starts to steam.
With a potato masher or a fork, mash the potatoes thoroughly into the butter/milk mixture. Do NOT pass through a ricer or, worse, beat in a mixer as it will make the potatoes gluey and disgusting.
Mix the cabbage thoroughly through the mashed potato.
Before serving, season with a pinch of salt and sprinkle with fresh parsley or chives. Most importantly, make a well in the center of the mound of potato and put the last third of the butter in there to melt.
Irish Barmbrack recipe for Halloween
In the weeks leading up to Halloween, homes are littered with the delicious treat known as barmbrack, which is an Irish fruit loaf. The title comes from the Irish ‘bairín breac’ which literally means ‘speckled loaf.’
Traditionally in Ireland, each member of the family would get a slice of the cake. But you had to be careful when chewing the delicious treat, as there were several charms hidden inside, wrapped in baking paper, which signified omens for the finder’s future.
If you found a ring, you’re in for some romance. If you got the coin, then you’re in for a prosperous year, but if you found the rag then your financial future was in doubt. If you find the thimble, then you will never marry! Nowadays, all barmbracks sold in Irish shops around Halloween contain a ring.
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Halloween Barmbrack (Getty Images)
Barmbrack Ingredients:
375g dried fruit
300ml cold tea
225g self-raising flour
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon mixed spice
125g caster sugar
Honey or Golden Syrup (optional – for decoration)
How to make Barmbrack:
Soak the fruit in tea overnight, then drain. Mix together with the rest of the ingredients (apart from the honey/golden syrup) and stir in the charms. Don’t over knead the dough or your delicately re-hydrated fruit will break up.
Line the base of a 20cm round cake tin or 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Grease the tin and pile in the mixture.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 340F for about an hour until risen and firm to the touch.
You can brush melted honey or golden syrup over the brack before cutting. Or glaze the ‘brack with a syrup made from two teaspoons of sugar dissolved in three teaspoons of boiling w
EXCLUSIVE: Irish influencer Vivienne Sayers said Samhain is “an old festival, and then Christianity took over and turned it into Halloween.”
By Eleanor Tolbert
21:59 ET, OCT 23 2024
A large skeleton during Dragon of Shandon Samhain Parade on Halloween night in Cork City (Image: Getty)
Jack-o-Lanterns grinning from outside doorways. Bags and buckets full of individually wrapped candies. People wearing costumes from the terrifying to the hilarious.
When you think of Halloween, a specific image comes to mind, but did you know the holiday stems from an ancient Irish festival?
She told the Irish Star that Samhain is Irish for ‘November,’ as it marks the beginning of the month. Oct. 31 is called Oíche Shamhna, or the ‘eve of Samhain,’ as there isn’t a direct translation for Halloween
Sayers said: “What this marks, essentially, is a Celtic festival that marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter.”
During Samhain, people would welcome the dead back to the living realm for a short period of time.
“Generally, it was a nice festival. It was nothing to do with scary ghosts or anything like that,” Sayers said. “It was really a time of reflection to look back on the harvest they had just had.”
A game called “bobáilín” was a major part of the festival, which involves bobbing for apples. (Image: Getty)
When Irish immigrants traveled to the US in 19th century, they brought their traditions over with them.
Sayers said many of the games that are played at Halloween events come from Samhain. A game called “bobáilín” was a major part of the festival, which involves bobbing for apples.
Another part of the celebration includes tine chnámh, which means lighting bonfires. Chnámh translates to “bone fire,” which refers to their original purpose of burning animal bones.
One Irish tradition that hasn’t made its way over to the US is Bairín Breac. Sayers said the bread is baked with charms inside, and depending on what is in your slice – whether it’s a gold ring or a cloth – tells your fortune for the future.
“It was an old festival, and then Christianity took over and turned it into Halloween,” she said.
There are four festivals in Ireland that celebrate the four quarters of the year. They are Imbolc, early spring and coinciding with St. Brigid’s Day; Bealtaine, which is the start of summer; Lúnasa, beginning of autumn; and finishes the year off with Samhain.
Halloween: Tools to keep those devilish, ghastly ghouls at bay on Samhain. iStock
Halloween, which the Irish can claim as their holiday, has inspired many traditions on how to ward off evil spirits. The Irish believed that on October 31 the evilest of creatures and ghouls came to visit them as the year saw an end of the light and the beginning of the dark season.
According to a leading commentator on agriculture in Kansas, John Schlageck, “The Irish believed fairies, who came out of their mounds at Halloween, played pranks on the people who lived above ground. When the Irish came to this country, they decided to emulate the fairies by going around and putting carriages on barns and turning over outhouses.”
As the Irish had many ways of ensuring they weren’t stolen away by the fairies on Halloween night, they were also wary that they would follow them across the ocean and so they brought their safety tricks with them wherever they went. Several of the traditions have been transported across the world, and here are just a few of the “tools” to keep those devilish, ghastly ghouls at bay.
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Bonfires
If you light a massive bonfire, you are more than sure to keep the spirit world away. Fairies will be terrified of the flames.
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(Getty)
Black cats
Schlageck said these creatures are “associated with Faust who sold his soul to the devil for knowledge and power.” As such the ghouls are wary of our dark-furred, little feline friends. Whoever said a black cat was bad luck?
The faces carved on the pumpkins are said to keep away ghosts from the door. What face will scare off the fairies more this year?
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(Getty)
Dressing up
Although the scary costumes may have fallen by the wayside recently with superheroes and princesses topping the list of trick-or-treat ideas children have these days, the tradition of dressing up as various creatures is another way for people to ward off bad spirits.
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(Getty)
Halloween colors are still orange and black, however, colors are associated with the dead so if you’re feeling like getting into the Oíche Samhna (Halloween) spirit, simply stick on something in these colors.
A former loyalist leader has said unionist paramilitary groups are in the background “waiting on a time they may be called upon” to return to large-scale conflict.
Despite a ‘ceasefire’ announced 30 years ago this week, both the main unionist paramilitary groupings, the UDA and UVF, continue to engage in serious criminality. In recent weeks they have been blamed for sectarian intimidation, racist attacks, drug dealing, racketeering, ‘turf-war’ beatings and arson.
A controversy has arisen over unionist Ministers at Stormont holding meetings with representatives of the unionist paramilitary groups. In its meetings, the so-called ‘Loyalist Communities Council ‘ (LCC) demanded cash injections for loyalist ‘charities’ and opposed Irish language education and the use of the Irish language generally.
Brian Ervine (pictured), formerly of the UVF-linked ‘Progressive Unionist Party’, said he disagreed with the LCC’s opposition to Irish language school plans, but claimed: “The problem is we can’t trust that the Union is safe and we can’t trust government.”
Asked about the LCC’s meetings with Stormont ministers, Mr Ervine said: “The real question is, is there any confidence in government? Is there any trust in government anymore?
“This means we are going to have these paramilitary groups continue in the background waiting on a time when they may be called upon.”
Loyalist ‘charities’ and other groups linked to unionist paramilitaries have faced a possible reduction of government funding amid a mounting scandal over the low-level violence taking place ‘below the radar’ of mainstream news.
In one Newtownabbey estate within the past two week, the South East Antrim UDA severely beat a teenager for standing up for his out-of-favour father, while teenage girls are being sexually exploited as payment for their drug debts.
Three weeks ago, the UVF beat a west Belfast man to within an inch of his life, breaking his arms and legs with iron bars and dumping him in an alley.
A new government film has recently admitted that UDA and UVF gangs “run” housing estates in the north of Ireland as it seeks to end their “coercive control”. This is believed to be the first time that the Six County Executive has acknowledged the failure of the PSNI to challenge paramilitaries in some areas.
A range of northern parties and groups, including the SDLP and People before Profit, have hit out the refusal of the DUP Ministers to meet with hundreds of other representatives while they entertain loyalist paramilitarism.
People Before Profit Councillor Shaun Harkin said the LCC meetings with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and Education Minister Paul Givan were “damaging and unacceptable”, and were “legitimising organisations who serve no progressive purpose”.
A spokesperson for Republican Sinn Fein also voiced strong opposition to the LCC and its agenda.
“These LCC member groups are pro-British elements and are only interested in strengthening the cause of partition. The constituents who support such ideology, propagated by this group, tend to lean towards ultranationalism,” they said.
“In more recent times this has surfaced when known UDA and UVF fascists, along with their Tricolour-waving far right friends from Dublin, took part in racially-motivated violence towards ethnic minorities living in the Occupied six counties.
“The LCC is adding fuel to an already slow-burning tinder box.”
An education in the Irish language is needed.. for the bigots –
Teaching of the Irish language – either at a proposed school or in classes for beginners – poses no threat to anyone
Supporters attend an Irish language protest at Stormont in 2021. Picture by Mark Marlow
By The Irish News
October 04, 2024 at 6:00am BST
IT is clear that attempts by loyalist elements to intimidate Irish language enthusiasts as they maintain a low-key presence outside what are perceived as nationalist districts are escalating and have reached disturbing levels.
The launch of a six-month Irish conversation class for beginners in the mainly unionist village of Castlerock in Co Derry was a small but positive step which should have been welcomed as an example of cultural diversity.
Both Causeway Coast and Glens Council, who own the Peter Thompson Community Centre, and the course organisers are believed to have been made aware of the sinister intervention, and police have confirmed that an investigation is under way.
It follows the bizarre recent engagement between the DUP education minister Paul Givan and the Loyalist Communities Council, which includes representatives of paramilitary groups, when plans for a small new Irish language primary school in east Belfast were discussed.
The proposed Scoil na Seolta is not due to receive public funding and its construction on a vacant site on Montgomery Road, a main thoroughfare, has been granted full planning permission by Belfast City Council.
Instead, it has since emerged that one participant somehow felt it was appropriate to raise issues relating to Scoil na Seolta, claiming that it was causing “causing polarity and volatility in the community”.
Despite the approval secured through the council’s standard processes, it was suggested that the project had “no meaningful support from the local unionist and loyalist population, and no consultation had taken place with local residents”.
The Department of Education has not indicated the response from the minister but it is perplexing that the LCC was able to put its confrontational views on Scoil na Seolta to him in the first place.
Linda Ervine, who happens to come from a Protestant and unionist background, has been coordinating the establishment of the Irish medium school, and has demonstrated that all the related official guidelines have been fully observed.
Scoil na Seolta and the Castlerock class are perfectly normal and straightforward projects which do not deserve to be treated with any kind of hostility by loyalist figures.
It must be hoped that our politicians from all backgrounds give their public support to the children and adults involved, and firmly oppose any hint that Irish speakers might be forced out of unionist districts.
