Those readers who wrote requesting to be one of the quartet of judges for the Dublin Dry Gin Taste of Temple Bar Awards, have displayed the familiar globe-trotting, extra-cool savvy which has marked the work of the award judges for the last few years.
There were so many requests to be one of the four, but tough love means there can only be four, and this year they will be: John Cantillon, who not only knows that "Simone Beck and Child are not musicians but artists" but is also a member of the Irish international underwater hockey team (!); Gina Boles from Dartry, who has promised to give me her recipe for a carrot dessert; Heather Sweetnam from Carrigaline in Cork, who says she looks for "skill, originality, honesty, creativity and freshness" in cooking, and Roisin Pryce, from The Curragh in Co Kildare, who sent the most extraordinary card festooned with star anise, cloves, wine capsules, bells and confetti, not to mention a nifty little quintet of verses. They now set about the Temple Bar restaurants with knives, forks and a vengence, and watch this space for the results.