Someone way up there was asking about "Why corned beef?" Ireland was a source of some of the finest beef cattle for a long time before refrigeration was around. A major export trade in (largely corned) beef was carried on, especially in the Cork area.

Later the emmigrant vessels from England often made a final European call in Cobh to collect the last possible supplies for a trans-Atlantic passage, including both fresh and preserved beef. I would therefore speculate that the association of these supplies with "the Old Country" may have led to the corned beef feast of today. Incidentally I have heard that the hinterland to the supply ports still has a cuisine which makes great use of offal, these being the cow parts which could not be preserved for export.

Don't know if that helps any. I'm away out now, I just hope that the English drunks who have become Irish for the night have adopted the habit of non-agression along with a taste for stout.