Tanya Sweeney: Homemade smoothies, crudites and educational games – when did the Irish play date become so competitive?

We must have had play dates back when we were children, although no one ever referred to them as that. If they did have a name, they’d probably be called ‘just make sure to come back in for your tea’. Sometimes we didn’t bother coming home for tea, especially if we could get our name into someone else’s dinner pot.

It wasn’t the end of the world, either way. I know I’m going a bit ‘’twas all fields round here once’ again, but bear with me. Things were all very simple and relaxed back then.



We’d wander into a neighbour’s house unaccompanied — it could be any one of five neighbouring families, and you wouldn’t know where you’d end up until you rang a doorbell — and we’d either play with whatever toys of theirs we didn’t have at home, or watch telly until our eyeballs rattled in their sockets..