PHOTOS FROM FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY OF THE 2009 RALLY.

For more photos of 2009 rally click on Bike show 2009, Prize winners 2009, Tattoo show 2009 or Gallery then Druids gallery 2009 or Bands at druids rally.  

Article taken from the Irish Independent.

By Paolo Tullio Saturday August 22 2009 Traditional fare is fine, but don't go too far down memory lane. Throughout this year, I've made a point of seeking out restaurants that serve good food at reasonable prices. I didn't find them by accident; I listened to friends, I took readers' suggestions, and I made my choices accordingly -- but that's not how I did it in previous years. I used another system called random chance. I decided on an area, then chose a restaurant almost by sticking a pin into a list while blindfolded. Sometimes I got lucky, sometimes I didn't. This has been a year with no random choices -- that is, none until this week. I hadn't done a review of a Sunday lunch for quite a while, so I thought I'd look for somewhere within easy reach of Dublin. I've reviewed most of the places on the east coast, so I looked inland. That's how I found Poulaphouca House on the N81, the road that goes from Tallaght to Blessington. I was taking Marian Kenny to lunch, so I got her to book us a table. As she put the phone down, she turned to me and said: "The man on the phone says there'll be a lot of bikers." Well, the road outside my house is filled with bikers every Sunday, so I didn't pay too much attention to this piece of information. We found Poulaphouca House a couple of miles before Hollywood and turned into the driveway. On our left was a field filled with tents and motorbikes. The driveway was filled with motorbikes and so was the car park. I saw the initial stages of doubt cross Marian's face, which turned into a secondary stage of doubt as we crossed the car park. Oil barrels doubling as bins were overflowing with beer cans and trash and, at one point, Marian pointed to a rubber prophylactic on the gravel, muttering: "Oh my God." The house itself is a passably attractive building in the Victorian style, but the temporary marquees on either side of it didn't improve its appearance, or that of the well-kept formal gardens, which were hidden by the tents. Clearly, we were not seeing Poulaphouca House as it normally is, a point I was keen to keep in mind both as we ate and as I write. We were met at the door by a charming young man who showed us to the dining room. There were three tables set, one for about 20 people, one for about 10 and ours, for two. I don't mean this unkindly, but the dining room kept making me feel as though I'd stepped into Fawlty Towers. A rather fine over-mantle mirror had a crack in it which had been repaired by sellotaping an A4 envelope over the crack. Outside the windows we could see a big wheelie bin and an overflowing skip. The tables had been set in the fashion of the 1960s -- the teacups already on the table and the paper napkins in a fan. The final stage of doubt kicked in and Marian whispered to me: "Can we leave now?" "Suspend judgement," I said. "We haven't eaten yet." And that's a point that needs clarifying. It's my view that although your surroundings, the food and the service all combine to make a meal what it is, as a reviewer I have to try to keep those things compartmentalised. I may give the ambience a low mark, but that shouldn't affect my judgement of the food, which I mark separately. Marian and I argued this point for a while, she contending that you can't separate these things and me arguing that you can and, in my particular case, really should. There was a short menu and a short list of just 10 wines. Just as well, because Marian wasn't drinking and I ordered a glass of the house white. There was something remarkable about this wine list though -- the prices. A bottle of the house wine was €15. I haven't seen a price like that since the 1990s so, if nothing else, the list does offer good value. Marian's appetite was dwindling and she wouldn't order a starter. So I ordered a vegetable soup, then Marian ordered the roast rib of beef, while I ordered the fish of the day. The soup, when it came, was hot and possibly wholesome, but it didn't taste of very much. Then came the mains. Now, imagine this. Marian, at best a picky eater, is handed a plate with two enormous, thick slices of medium-rare roast rib of beef. To most people, I suspect that would be like getting Christmas early, but to Marian it was the death knell of her appetite. "That's far too much for me," she said. "Just eat what you can and leave the rest," I said, but there was no consoling her. A large fillet of crumbed cod lay across my plate, garnished with a bit of salad. We had a bowl of rather good chips to share and we each got a small plate of the day's vegetables, boiled and unflavoured. In truth, these two dishes at €15.95 and €12.95 gave a lot for the money and had this meal been served to me 20 years ago I would have been happy. The trouble is that our tastes have become more sophisticated, and simple meals like these start to look like museum pieces. I don't have a problem with simple and wholesome, but I was beginning to see things like Marian, and the dated surroundings coupled with the dated food seemed, well, dated. Following the nostalgia theme, one of the desserts on offer was homemade apple pie, which we chose to have hot with cream and ice cream. We shared just the one, and it was exactly as you'd expect: wholesome, traditional and in no way modern. I have no doubt that there is a market for places like this, but the style of cooking and presentation belong to another age. If you're the sort of person who hankers after the good old days, Poulaphouca House may well suit you. Our bill came to €49.90, which included three quarter-bottles of mineral water at €2.70 each, or €10.80 a litre -- an insane price for water. Poulaphouca House, Hollywood, Co Wicklow. Tel: 045 864118 Read Paolo at www.tasteofireland.com email: paolo@independent.ie - Paolo Tullio