Cucumber sandwiches and a generous selection of cakes are served on vintage plates and stands. The tea is so good it convinced my mam of the adage that ‘tea tastes best from a china cup”.  Painted chairs, cups hanging from the chandelier and the tunes played on a huge old wireless give the whole experience a whimsical, fairytale air. The Mad Hatter did not appear but the bright, bubbly and welcoming ladies running the tea rooms did pop over to have a word. The tea rooms are run by volunteers and you pay by donating to the charity nominated on the day you visit.

The tea rooms operate in a little room adjoining St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Dungarvan. Normal opening hours are each Saturday until the end of September from 2-5pm.

On Thursday 20th September they will open for Ireland’s biggest coffee morning in aid of Waterford Hospice from 10.30am-2pm. The tea rooms will also host a Companionship Evening at 8pm on Wednesday 19th September; an evening of tea and chat for those who are single, bereaved, divorced or who live alone.

Several Storytelling Southeast events will be based in St Mary’s: on 27th September there will be Poetry to organ music by Eric Sweeney and Mark Roper while Afternoon teas on Saturday 29th will come with a cake stall, facepainting and storytelling. On his 200th birthday the works of Charles Dickens will be celebrated by Encore Stage Academy in “What the Dickens?” on Sunday 30th September at 2pm.

The full Storytelling Southeast festival programme is available online.

You can find St Mary’s Charity Vintage Tea Rooms on Facebook. The tea rooms are open both Saturday and Sunday this weekend; on 15th September in aid of Dungarvan Men’s Shed and on 16th September from 12-5pm for the Valerie Foundation Belarussian Orphanges. Go see them…in the immortal words of Mrs Doyle “Go on, go on, go on, go on