I’ve eaten many a traditional Irish dish, from boxty to brown soda bread, Irish stew to Dublin coddle.

Of deliciously perfect and perfectly delicious Carrageen moss pudding … nothing, nada, zilch.

Is it because the crucial component is ‘seaweed’? You’d imagine seaweed would be central to the national diet of an island nation with such a maritime heritage, but it is random, almost an afterthought.

Sushi is now wildly popular but do we ever consider the glittering, verdant nori (pressed laver seaweed) ‘wrapping’ the rice rolls? Seaweed features on quite a few Irish menus but as a grace note, rarely, as a primary component.

Goldie chef Aishling Moore uses it daily, as seasoning, to infuse stocks, or pickled for salads but has yet to serve it as a standalone dish.

Nutty, textured, salty-sweet, sea spaghetti is a personal favourite but only rarely encountered over the years and invariably in cutting-edge seafood-adjacent restaurants.

Probably the most prolific user is Cork-based Japanese chef Takashi Miyazaki.

A true superfood, it is a rich source of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, helping to control metabolic health, blood sugar levels, gut health, and promoting immunity.

It was once a commonly consumed Irish coastal peasant food and is still hand-harvested in traditional fashion, some 40,000 tons each year, much for export.

Carrageen is intensively farmed in the Philippines for use as an industrial food additive.

(Ironically, probably how we consume most ‘seaweed’ in Ireland.) It is also used in the manufacture of cosmetics and beauty products and as an agricultural fertiliser.

Highly prized, a 2022 Dutch government study estimated the value of the global commercial seaweed market could hit €22bn by 2028 — there’s gold on them there sea beds.

The State is considering licence applications from four foreign companies for mechanical harvesting of 14,000+ hectares of seaweed, more than doubling the current harvest and with infinitely more destructive potential than traditional harvesting.

Seaweed forests not only protect against coastal erosion and serve as a nursery for fish and other maritime life, but also filter and clean seawater and act as a carbon sink.....