Christmas in an Irish five-star hotel: ‘We start planning on December 28, to make it feel like you’re in somebody’s home’

Picture the scene: you’re in the kitchen on Christmas Day. Every inch of counter space is covered in dirty pots and pans, and you’ve just remembered the bacon-wrapped sausages that are now burnt to a cinder in the oven. In the other room, you can hear the sound of squabbling, no doubt taking place among piles of screwed up wrapping paper.