Four to five per cent of Ireland's population are vegetarian, estimates Ms Patricia Timoney, secretary of the Irish Vegetarian Society, writes Patricia Weston
And Christmas can be a particularly difficult time to be vegetarian, she says. "Personally, I suppose you feel that you stick out more as being 'different'."
The Vegetarian Society was set up by volunteers to encourage and provide information for vegetarians. The organisation's founders also promote a meat-free diet to prevent cruelty to animals.
Ms Tracy Culleton, author of the vegetarian cookbook Simply Vegetarian, is a vegetarian and doesn't find it a problem.
She makes a point of preparing a different turkey-free dish for her family every Christmas. "The dish is loosely based around a nut roast. I also like to keep it as traditional as possible, with sprouts, carrots in marmalade, gravy and roast potatoes."
Mr Simon FitzGerald, a television producer, has been a vegetarian for over 20 years.
"When I was about 13-years-old I saw a bag of diced rabbit in the freezer department of my local supermarket and it struck me how disrespectful we, as one species of animal on this earth, are to those we share it with. I never ate meat again," he says.
Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, a vegetarian, predicted the circumstances of his funeral.
"My hearse will be followed not by mourning coaches but by herds of oxen, sheep, swine, flocks of poultry and a small travelling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarves in honour of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures," he wrote.