There actually is a heron, you know, who likes to rest right outside Sorcha Mulloy’s riverside house at the Spanish Arch. He’s called Jack, and we took a picture of him one time we stayed, in the afternoon just as we arrived at the house. He’s photogenic, and patient, happy to stand still long enough so we could get the picture on our ‘phone. And once we had the picture, we thought to ourselves: ‘Only in Galway’. The rest of the country is littered with houses called Sea View (no view of the sea), Orchard Grove (no orchard, no grove), Chez Nous (wrong country). But, in Galway, Heron’s Rest means just that: the place where the heron – Jack – comes to rest. You couldn’t make it up.
Mind you, you could hardly make Sorcha Mulloy up, either. There is no more meticulous hostess in Ireland. But she’s funky, too, and she creates a breakfast that has no parallel in Ireland. Ms Mulloy is actually a highly qualified expert on nutrition, so her breakfasts are not just unique and delicious, they are also powerhouses of health. Elizabeth Field described the Heron’s breakfast as ‘incredible’. Yeah, incredible it is.
