Irish cuisine can be divided into two main categories – traditional, mainly simple dishes, and more modern dishes, as served by hotels etc. for tourists.

Some examples of simple Irish meals are Irish stew, and also bacon and cabbage. Ireland is famous for the "Irish breakfast," consisting mainly of pork, and, particularly in Ulster, fried potato farls.

A dish mostly particular to Dublin is coddle, which involves boiled pork sausages.

Seafood has never been a mainstay of the Irish diet, despite the country being an island, but many dishes have developed nonetheless. Salmon and cod are perhaps the two most common types of fish used. Hotels might also serve oysters and mussels.