25 July 2020

A double espresso and
watching life pass by

A new coffee stop in Askeaton, Co Limerick, on Friday mornings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

One of the simple joys in life is sitting down with a double espresso and watching life go by.

And one of the simple joys of life that have been restored with the gradual lifting of the pandemic lockdown is being able to go out for a double espresso and watch life go by.

This weekend, it is a joy to see that the Rathkeale House Hotel is open once again. It had been closed and sold before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, and the lockdown delayed its refurbishment and reopening. But it is open once again, with many of the former staff back at work.

And so, it was a joy to sit in the Rathkeale House Hotel and spend time over a double espresso once again on Friday afternoon (24 July 2020).

A recycling message accompanies a double espresso in the Vandeleur Gardens in Kilrush, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

In the past few weeks there have been coffees and something to eat in the Green Onion in Limerick and the Vandeleur Walled Gardens in Kilrush, Co Clare, coffee in the Coast Café in Ballybunion, Co Kerry, and a late afternoon lunch in Keating’s in Kilbaha at the end of the Loop Head peninsula in Co Clare last Sunday (19 July 2020).

But Askeaton also has a new venue for double espressos too.

Patrick Mullins and his enterprising daughters have opened Mulmacs, a new coffee shop in a converted horsebox that they bring to the farmers’ market in Askeaton every Friday morning.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s just the simple pleasures in life that bring a smile to my face.

‘Mulmacs’ … a new coffee stop in Askeaton on Friday mornings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

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