A Cork chef and a geographer celebrated in new publication

A chef and a geographer from Cork have been featured in new entries published in ‘The Dictionary of Irish Biography’.

The five new biographical entries have been added to The Dictionary of Irish Biography open access database. This release sees the publication of an eclectic range of noteworthy lives, drawn from across the spectrum of Irish society, including Myrtle Allen (1924–2018), born in on the Lower Glanmire Road, Cork city, and Anne Buttimer (1937–2017), born in Ardcahan.

Chef, food writer and hotelier, Myrtle Allen’s revolutionary culinary philosophy garnered international recognition. In 1975 she became the first Irish woman to be awarded a Michelin star (held until 1980) and in 1981 accepted an invitation to run La Ferme Irlandaise in Paris. Her dedication to championing Irish produce was absolute. While running La Ferme Irlandaise she travelled by ferry to France every Saturday evening after finishing restaurant service in Ballymaloe, her car packed with fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

In later years when holding cookery demonstrations in New York, she brought a suitcase filled with Irish apples in case the right kind of apple was not available. Allen was also committed to defending local produce and artisanal food, and when Martin Guillemot and Anne-Marie Jamand’s cheese stall in Cork’s English Market was closed by health inspectors, she founded the Cork Free Choice consumer group in 1989 to defend small producers and inform people where they could find fresh local ingredients.

Anne Buttimer was widely regarded as Ireland’s pre-eminent internationally recognised geographer. She built an international academic career, holding posts in Scotland, the United States, Sweden, Canada and Ireland, and became known for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative qualitative research methods. Her ‘Dialogue project’, which ran for more than a decade, was designed to stimulate interdisciplinary communication and involved academics from over thirty countries.

Speaking about the newly published entries, Dr Eoin Kinsella, Managing Editor, said: “These new entries reflect the DIB’s ongoing commitment to telling Ireland’s life story and to uncovering and celebrating lives that might otherwise be overlooked, ensuring that the island’s complex and diverse history continues to be told in full.”

The new entries also include politician William Michael (‘Liam’) Cosgrave who died in 2017; Desmond (‘Des’) Hanafin who also died in 2017 and was businessman and Catholic activist; as well as Gerald Brendan (‘Gerry’) Scanlan who was a banker. He died in 2016.The Dictionary of Irish Biography was launched in 2009 after many years of research by hundreds of contributors and its online edition now features almost 11,000 lives and continues to grow.