I was quite bemused when I received a request to write a hub about Irish Rice dishes, and even more surprised (and very impressed) when I started to research the topic and immediately found the wonderful Kathryn Vercillo, a fellow hubber, who had come up with four tasty Irish rice recipes. And indeed, they sound delicious, so I've included a link below -- go feast your eyes. But in the main (apart from Rice Pudding) rice is not really a staple of most northern Irish people's diet.

There are several reasons for this.

1. rice is not a potato. It's difficult to describe exactly what that means, unless you have been brought up on potatoes. You can mash potatoes, fry 'em, sauté 'em, grill 'em, bake 'em, roast 'em in oil; chop 'em up and put 'em in soup, pies, mince, croquettes; you can make potato bread, chip butties, or just boil 'em up and serve with any meal.
   
2. rice is not grown in Ireland. Now, I know the fields are referred to as paddies, but that has nothing to do with the Irish in this case. If you have ever seen rice paddies, you will know that they are very un-Irish; they are neat fields surrounded by banks and filled with water, or they are terraces on a hillside in orderly fashion.
   
3. rice is weird. And since it is imported, it is more expensive than potatoes.

Now, it is true that the northern Irish palate has matured over the past thirty years or so, and the introduction of the ubiquitous Chinese takeaway and Indian restaurants have led to more tolerance for rice being so small and prone to slip off your fork tines unless you make it sticky. And the fact that you can fry rice is popular. (People fry everything -- they even fry bread in Ireland. Just the idea of that gives me a headache.)

Since I went to live in Japan for two years, I discovered the joys of rice as a breakfast, lunch, and dinner item.  But in my youth the only time rice was ever really satisfying was as an anecdote for the munchies -- cold, straight out of the tin.  Excellent.