Oíche nollaig

Oíche nollaig Christmas Eve is, traditionally in Ireland, a day of fasting and contemplation in anticipation of, and preparation for, the blow-out feed of Christmas dinner: ham, chicken, stuffing, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, roast parsnips a la parmigiano, braised red cabbage. In Catholic Ireland 'fasting' means spuds and fish. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Dau.I and Dau.II, my catering daughters, are going to find so that I can fulfill my fasting vows and full-fill my tum too. Here are some ideas, all delicious. As no Irish fish-monger knows Latin, I've given the girls some clues:

Melanogrammus aeglefinus

Gadus morhua

Limanda limanda

Scomber scombrus

Pleuronectes platessa

Leucoraja ocellata

Clues below the fold

After a feed of fish you'll be after needing some noisy exercise. Move over Lord of the Danazis.

• Here is ProdiJIG in Cork. 
• Did you cry Encore! ?
• Taiko 
• a work-out with Kodo?
• The youth movement?
• Samba. Me and 40 others making a noise for Patrick's Day parade 2006
• Body percussion for men
• One 12 hand clapping
• Young men in skirts drumming
• Wheelie-bin stomp with Groove Onkels
• cuatro chicos en una mesa. 

For those, Francophones and others, who may not get all the slang and cultural references. 

Captain Haddock from Tintin, [of course]

On the left is a cod-piece, which covers ye coddes old fashioned word for the male genitalia

Dabs are thieves cant for fingerprints

We call altocumulus clouds mackerel skies . . . and mare's tails [cirrus] make big ships have small sails

Plaice, my favourite flat-fish since I was a child, I've matched this with La Place de la Concorde

Skate the common name applies to a wide variety of rays.