Planning a trip to Ireland - vegan options?

Dedalus

Dedalus

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My wife and I are thinking about joining a tour of Ireland next year in October for the Gathering. The tour covers Shannon, The Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, Blarney, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny and Dublin.

How feasible is it that we will be able to easily find vegan options?

Thanks in advance!
 
Hi Dedalus. Overall, you'll be fine. Dublin in particular is very vegan-friendly. Larger towns like Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford will also have the usual suspects - Indian, Chinese, Italian, where you'll be able to get vegan stuff. Places like the Cliffs of Moher and Blarney are a bit out of the way and will require a bit of planning in advance though. Might be an idea to stock up on goodies while you're in Dublin.
 
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Atiri said:
Hi Dedalus. Overall, you'll be fine. Dublin in particular is very vegan-friendly. Larger towns like Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford will also have the usual suspects - Indian, Chinese, Italian, where you'll be able to get vegan stuff. Places like the Cliffs of Moher and Blarney are a bit out of the way and will require a bit of planning in advance though. Might be an idea to stock up on goodies while you're in Dublin.
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Thank you sir - you've rescued this post from the void of no responses! I'm quite relieved to hear that there will be vegan friendly options. Stocking up is a sound idea though. Much appreciated.
 
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No problem! When I get a chance, I'll post a more specific list of good vegan-friendly places in Dublin. I also recommend a trip to Galway if you're in Ireland. It's really beautiful, and, in the city at least, there are quite a few vegan options.
 
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Atiri said:
No problem! When I get a chance, I'll post a more specific list of good vegan-friendly places in Dublin. I also recommend a trip to Galway if you're in Ireland. It's really beautiful, and, in the city at least, there are quite a few vegan options.
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When my parents visited Ireland from the US, Galway was a favorite of theirs. :-)
 
I found an awesome vegan restaurant in Dublin. I'll have a look through my photos of the trip when I have time because I know I took a photo of the place.

EDIT:

It's closed down! :(

It was the only restaurant I went to when I was in Dublin. We stayed in a hostel so I just brought food from the supermarket and cooked my own, only ate out once as a treat.

Sorry I can't be of more help. :(
 
Atiri said:
Can you remember what it was called Annia? I'm curious now!
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Juice.

According to the internet it was a vegan-friendly vegetarian restaurant but when I was there (2009) I don't remember any non-vegan things on the menu. But then again, I wasn't looking for those.
 
Ah, I remember Juice well. It wasn't exclusively vegan, but it did have a lot of vegan options. I wasn't a massive fan I have to say, but it was still very sad to see it close down.

I came across this last night and it should be very handy for anyone planning a trip to Ireland. It's a spreadsheet of vegan eats in Ireland by county. It can be found here:

http://corkvegans.ie/faq.html
 
It's an anti-spam thing that's in place on new members, sorry!

I think it goes away after you posted 10 times. I might be wrong though, I'll double check.
 
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Yep, it is 10 posts. And Indian Summer thinks that once a newbie has reach 10 posts all previous links they've tried to post will become visible.

We shall have to see! :D

Anyway, back to the OP. From what I gather from my Irish friends, it's about the same as in the UK for being vegan. Most restaurants etc will accommodate dietary requirements so you could always try ringing/email restaurants, or the hotels you're staying in, and they should be happy to make you something vegan as long as you've given them time to plan for it. It's what my family did when I was vegan and we wanted to go out for a big family meal and the restaurant didn't have any vegan options on the menu.
Actually walking into a restaurant and getting something vegan might be harder but again, they might be able to adjust a vegetarian option into being vegan, you just might have to wait a bit longer for your food.

And if you're going to be able to have the option of cooking your own food, you will easily be able to find stuff in the supermarkets.
 
I haven't been to Ireland since 2000 (the first and so far the only time I visited it), but my experience agreed with the posts above: larger cities will have a decent selection of foods suitable for vegetarians and vegans, especially Dublin.

I had a nice experience in Galway- I was going to order french fried potatoes (or "chips" as they are called there), and somehow it came up that I am vegetarian. The waitress warned me that the potatoes were cooked in animal fat, so I ordered something else. Be careful in other areas though. I ordered a "salad sandwich" in Athlone and it had a slice of bologna on it. I hadn't even thought to ask if it would be vegetarian beforehand...

Sorry I didn't see your thread before now.
 
I was an omni in Ireland so cant help with the vegan options. But food stores have plenty of variety. They have M & S there too though not sure if they have vegan things there or not.

But it should be a very nice trip. I was sorry to leave Ireland, a wonderful country.
 
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