<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Over the summer, there were a number of postings which seemed to imply that
Ireland is some sort of heaven for coeliacs.  It bothers me that some of the
comments made were either misleading or downright false.  So I want to set
the record straight on a few points -
 
For example;
1) On Sun, 5 May 1996, Philip Lipetz wrote;
 
"I vistied Ireland in 1995 and found that they Irish suffer from one of
the highest rates of celiac disease in the world.  As a result, I could
go into any resturant and tell the server that Iwas a celiac and they
would quietely, and knowingly, take cake of my special needs."
 
I replied to him:
 
NOT SO, I'm afraid!
 
Yes, we do have high rates of CD here in Ireland and more people have heard
of it than in other countries.  However, in my experience (I live in Dublin)
the extent of understanding of the average waiter or chef is NOT as high as
you imply.  The danger is that they may not always be aware of their lack of
full understanding and/or unwilling to admit this.  It is NOT enough to say
you are a coeliac.  Time and time again I have found that more explicit
questions or instructions are necessary to be sure that you are understood
and it is better to have your requirements on a card which can be shown to
the chef.
 
Also in Ireland the GF diet allows the use of products made from wheat
starch which is not allowed in the US and Canada, so there is a danger that
such comments would mislead people who follow a stricter diet than we do here.
 
 
 
2) On Wed, 17 Jul 1996, Karl Tusing wrote:
 
"By the way, McDonalds in Denmark and Ireland serve hamburgers
on GF buns (I think Finland has them also)."
 
Again - NOT SO!
I don't know anything at all about Denmark or Finland, but I contacted the
head office of McDonalds in Ireland and they sent me an ingredient list for
all their products.  NO, they do NOT serve GF buns in any of their
restaurants here and many of their other products are not GF either.  They
did say however that if you provide YOUR OWN GF BUN, they will prepare it
for you, but that is obviously not quite the same thing.
 
 
Quite a number of people simply asked for info about travelling in Ireland
and I tried to answer as many as I could as honestly as I could.  I hope you
all enjoyed your travels here.
 
I'm posting this to the whole list as I am worried that people who plan to
travel to Ireland in the future might get a totally over-optimistic picture
from the type of comment I've highlighted above and arrive very unprepared.
 
To sum up - yes, Ireland may be easier for coeliacs than some other
countries, but coeliac paradise? - well, not quite!
 
Do visit us though   -   Liz (Ward)
 
PS. Sorry my response to these comments is so delayed.  I wanted to make
sure I had my own facts right first.