your 'corned beef' sounds quite like our 'salt beef' (brined and salt-petered and pickled with peppery spices) which despite being quite traditional here fell out of favour with us Brits years ago when we started importing the processed tinned stuff from Argentina. As the troll notes - the much cheaper option - boiled gammon or bacon is what the Irish traditionally have with their cabbage (as well as boiled spuds) though they did once dominate the export business in corned beef to Europe and the US which is probably why US folk often have corned beef at St. Pats.