Flash Burgers not Available

The horse burger scandal has not been all doom and gloom as two London teenagers showed when they served up a laugh at the expense of the food chain retailer Tesco, which has been at the center of media attention over the issue.

In addition to providing raw material for humorists the scandal might yet be a cloud that has a silver lining if one English publican has his way.

Russell Proctor who is landlord at The George Inn In Northamptonshire hopes to serve up burgers with a meat content as high as 100%.

We serve our own home-made burgers and the customers were joking about how much horse was in them. I said I would get some in so they could try it. I suspect some of them might pull out on the night. It is a one-off at the moment, but if it goes well, we will do it again. There’s no problem with eating horse as long as people know what they are eating.

Included on the menu are The burgers will be served from 6pm tomorrow and will be priced around £7. The varieties include a plain Red Rum, Shergar and Nijinski burgers.

Fortunately, there will be no Flash Burger. The famous Irish race horse Another Flash had long expired before ending up between two burger baps.

Another Flash winner of the 1960 Cheltenham Champion Hurdle

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Lady on a Bridge

Lady on a Bridge 

This photo, probably because of a certain haunting mystique has been our most popularly viewed Facebook page. The image is a Lensman work and was photographed on O'Connell Bridge on the 27th March 1956.

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Horse trading

The Irish food industry has been rocked by news that horse meat has made its way into the human food chain. According to the Irish Times 'a study by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) found the presence of horse DNA in more than a third of the beef burger products it tested.'

Contaminated burgers have been on sale available to unwitting consumers in Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Lidl, Aldi and Iceland.

Nevertheless the government continued to hold firm in its stance that the problem posed no threat to human health. Tanaiste Eamonn Gilmore told the Dail that people had nothing to fear. Clearly uneasy the government has moved to allay fears about the wellbeing of the Irish food industry. Agriculture Simon Coveney has blamed the contamination on imported products, while the The Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted from Europe that 'this is very important for Ireland’s reputation ... We pride ourselves on having world class beef.'

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an investigation into the food crisis.

The food industry is a majors source of employment in Ireland and it is the governments' hope that the crisis passes quickly and that horses will once again be associated in the public mind with with matters other than burgers.

The 1964 Epsom Derby winner

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