Excellent fare for fair trade protest

"IT'S A quare name but great stuff" was the response of one Fianna Fail TD in the Dail restaurant as he tucked eagerly into a dish of "West African pork and peanut butter casserole, served with wild rice".

His colleague was sampling the "tropical fruit compote with hazelnuts" and finishing his meal off with an "African chocolate mousse". "They should do this more often," he exclaimed.

To mark the visit of a group of fair trade campaigners to the House, the restaurant switched fro in its normal Irish salmon and beef staple menu to something a little more exotic. Diners could also choose baked sea trout with coconut, cashew nut curry and Cape strawberries, before rounding things off with a cup of Bewley's new fairly traded coffee.

Outside, African drummers led a parade of human sized goods, such as a gigantic shoe and a seven foot coffee jar, through Dublin's streets, part of a new campaign to promote fairly traded goods with Irish shoppers.

These have been developed to provide small producers in the developing world with a reasonable price for their products, so they don't have to rely on charity or the multinationals, or the vicissitudes of the market. Fair trade produce, which started in Holland in the 1960s, also involves the minimum use of pesticides, fertilisers and other agents harmful to the environment.

In Ireland, fair trade goods are available from a variety of outlets, many of them wholefood or charity shops.