Brewing Power: Food and Drink in Sixteenth-Century Ireland

This event has ended

Dublin Castle, Friday 6th February - Saturday 21st February

A six-part interactive public lecture series at Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle is delighted to present a six-part public lecture series exploring how food and drink shaped everyday life, social relationships and authority in sixteenth-century Ireland. The series draws on new research conducted by the FoodCult project, led by Trinity historian Dr Susan Flavin, and moves between the kitchens of Dublin Castle and the reconstructed Tudor brew houses combining history, science, archaeology, craft and film.

Through talks, film and guided tastings, visitors are invited to discover what happens when history is re-enacted and comes to life demonstrating how food offers a powerful way of understanding lived experience in the past. The series considers the experiences of servants, the rhythms of everyday work and the role of food in shaping social interaction and religious life.

A distinctive feature of the series is its focus on brewing as historical practice. Several events highlight a long-term collaboration between the FoodCult project and Maurice Deasy of Canvas Brewing, a farmhouse brewery in County Tipperary. What began as a historical reconstruction has developed into an ongoing partnership, exploring how early modern brewing knowledge can inform contemporary craft. Using Irish-grown heritage grain and hops, malted on site, this work demonstrates how historical research can shape modern brewing practice.

Each event includes a guided tasting as part of this collaboration, allowing visitors to connect historical research with sensory experience.

The series runs at Dublin Castle on February 6–7, 13–14, and 20–21.


Date:
Friday 6th February - Saturday 21st February
Time:
7.00pm
Price:
From €7
Address:
Dublin Castle, Dame Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

Google Map of Dublin Castle, Dame Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

You might also like...

Bloomsday Festival - A literary carnival in honour of James Joyce and his famous novel, Ulysses, that was set in Dublin on June 16th, 1904.

What's on

Bloomsday Festival

Various Locations

Bloomsday celebrates Thursday 16 June 1904, the day depicted in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the central character in Ulysses. The novel follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and a host of other characters – real and fictional – from 8am on 16 June 1904 through to the early hours of the following morning. Celebrations often include dressing up like characters from the book and in clothes that would have been the style of the era. One of the hallmark fancy dress items of Bloomsday is the straw boater hat. Celebrations come in many differen

What's on

A Joycean Evening

Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre

Begin your Bloomsday celebrations in style with an uplifting evening of Joycean theatre and music. A talented cast will perform witty and moving extracts. Interspersed with toe-tapping music. A talented cast will perform witty and moving extracts from Ulysses, Dubliners, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, revealing Joyce’s humour and humanity. Baritone Simon Morgan, accompanied by Josh Johnston, will perform Joycean songs. Back by public demand we are delighted to have Sinéad Murphy and Darina Gallagher with us again in 2026. They will perform Songs of Joyce: a toe-tapping mus

What's on

An Evening with Lisa Jewell and Andrea Mara

Royal Irish Academy of Music

From thrilling plots and unexpected twists to deeply complex characters, join Dublin Book Festival for an evening with two bestselling authors as we delve into the dark and gripping worlds of their latest psychological thrillers. In Lisa Jewell’s It Could Have Been Her, a lost dog, whose owner is now missing, draws Jane back to an isolated house that she has been in before. 25 years earlier, she was here with a man she didn’t know.. until a scream and thud from upstairs sent her running. Now, when she glimpses a haunted looking woman through the window, she is driven to finally uncover