From soda bread to knowing who Leo Varadkar is, Sarah Jessica Parker gets more Irish by the day

M ore Irish than the Irish themselves: Jack Charlton, certain Anglo-Normans, and Sarah Jessica Parker. A Donegal woman who winters in Manhattan, the Sex and the City star recently shared her culinary journey by posting to Instagram some soda bread and a hearty brothy soup she made for herself. Parker, not fully fluent in Irish cuisine, ate the soup and bread for breakfast. “All I’m missing is the smell of turf,” she said. Her recipes came from Kieran McArdle (30), a Newry man known as Bitewise on Instagram and TikTok, who explores traditional Irish cooking. Parker followed him a week before posting her own creations. “I thought it might have been a fake account,” McArdle told Overheard. “But then a post appeared. ‘I was just thinking to myself, it looked like the exact same as mine,’” he said. Confirmation came when Parker publicly acknowledged using his Irish broth recipe and posting the results. “And I made my first soda bread!” she said. “Thank you for the inspiration!” McArdle, who works full-time in mental health in Liverpool, noted his growing audience includes people from the U.S. who recall forgotten Irish recipes. Parker has previously discussed her struggle with Irish citizenship due to her lack of a suitably Irish grandmother. Her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, has visited Roelough, near Kilcar, since childhood, and the couple secured planning permission for renovations to their house. They even presented the Broderick Cup at a local GAA blitz event, which might have been a path to citizenship, though it apparently isn’t. A new acquaintance could prove useful for her cause. At the opening night of *Ulster American*, a play at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin starring Broderick, Parker met Leo Varadkar, the former taoiseach. Varadkar, delighted to meet Parker, told her of his admiration for her. “So chuffed to meet this lady at last,” he said in an Instagram post. Overheard reports that four isn’t many times to have seen *Sex and the City*, but Parker has been busy. Meanwhile, a State visit by King Charles III to Limerick is expected in 2027, following an invitation by President Catherine Connolly. Limerick Mayor John Moran has invited the king to inspect King John’s Castle, aiming to showcase the city’s progress. Moran emphasized the significance of such visits for local development. Irish farmers are calling for government action over recent droughts, echoing a Babylonian farmer’s plea from 3,600 years ago: ‘As to the sesame field, I am not getting water. The sesame will die.’ Dr. Martin Möllhoff and Prof. Chris Bean from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies discussed earthquake activity, noting recent tremors in Indonesia, Japan, Colombia, and Granada. They explained that while large earthquakes average about 16 per year, this year has seen 11, which is close to the average. Earthquakes in populated areas often trigger strong aftershocks, which can take years to stabilize. Overheard also explored the historical context of droughts and their parallels with modern agricultural challenges.