He's slightly on the tubby side, with stumpy legs and a questionable dress sense, but that hasn't stopped him from becoming one of the nation's most recognisable icons. Yes, it's Mr Tayto.

The very sight of this smiling potato head is enough to ignite an immediate connection with our Irish identity, just like Barry's tea and brown bread.

So perhaps it's no surprise that the man himself has unleashed his autobiography on a country of admirers. We've been nibbling cheese & onion, salt & vinegar and the far more dubious prawn cocktail Taytos for 55 years, so it's about time we learned a little about this dapper dresser.

Evidently he's got brains as well as belly, as his new tome has become the surprise hit of the book world. With its tongue firmly in its cheek, Mr Tayto -- The Man Inside the Jacket reveals exactly what he's been up to since his family created the first crisp back in 1954.

Holidaying in Bettystown and flogging crisps to Cuban revolutionaries for a start. Oh, and escorting Roses at the Tralee festival in the 1970s.

He also found time to brush up on his Irish in the Gaeltacht and run for election in 2007, dressed smartly in his bespoke Louis Copeland jacket and orange and yellow-striped trousers.

To an outsider, the prospect of a fictional promotional character releasing a book would rightly be considered an outlandish gimmick. But those poor foreigners are missing out. Because, as we lucky Irish rightly know, Tayto is more than just a bag of crisps.

Like Hoover, Tipp-Ex and Xerox, it's a rare brand that has transcended its name to become a byword for crisps in Ireland.

Sure, we've flirted with more sophisticated brands, dabbled with Hunky Dorys and tested Hula Hoops, but we've always gone back to the old reliable Tayto.

We might have grown used to Michelin-starred restaurants, but our palates are still programmed to yearn for the old reliable Tayto's potato crisps.

And in the case of Irish ex-pats, the procurement of a rare bag of Tayto far outranked a succulent steak with fine wine. Anyone who has ever lived for a time on foreign shores will remember sending requests back home for a large box of Taytos, Cadbury's chocolate and Barry's tea bags.

As an Erasmus student in Germany, I habitually forked out the equivalent of IR£2 for a packet of plain 'ol cheese 'n' onion. It was finger-lickin' good and worth every penny.

Back on Christmas Day 2007, I couldn't have been further from home. Lounging on a hammock on a tiny Fijian island, I felt the first twinges of homesickness as I took in the bizarre sight of a twinkling Christmas tree and Santa Claus in a grass skirt on the beach.

Vital

Luckily for me, my parents were people of vision and had shipped out some vital supplies -- a six-pack of Taytos and a giant selection box.

After all, Christmas isn't Christmas unless you sprinkle a packet of chocolate buttons into the crisp packet and dip in for some blind satisfaction.

Then again, it would be presumptuous of me to assume we're all the same in our Tayto tastes. Some like it between two slices of white bread in a classic sandwich. Others prefer the traditionalist way of washing it down with a glass of TK red lemonade. (eaten out of the boot of a car on the way to a GAA match). And I know one guy who likes to smash up the crisps and sprinkle them over his sausages for his weekend fry-up.

The cult rock group Toasted Heretic paid Tayto the ultimate compliment when they released an album cover designed like a crisp packet, with the title "Now In New Nostalgia Flavour".

Unfortunately for the band, Tayto weren't all that pleased with the free advertising and demanded that any likeness of Mr Tayto be removed from the album cover and the website.

The firm insisted the album and some of its "adult" lyrics would tarnish the brand's "wholesome" image.

Mind you, there's nothing too wholesome about Mr Tayto's mind when it comes to looking for a woman. According to his website, the terminal bachelor has high standards when it comes to looking for Mrs Tayto.

"She'll have to know her way around a Massey Ferguson. Blindfolded". Cheesy, just like you'd expect.

- Aoife Finneran