Within the overall "soda bread" category, there are Irish brown breads — made with whole wheat flour instead of white, which tends to make them nuttier and denser. Irish brown (soda) bread ...

This bread hearkens back to a time when Irish soda bread was a more rustic, country affair, not all gussied up with mostly white flour. Traditionally, the Irish didn’t have a lot of white flour ...

whereas Americans tend to use white flour. As mentioned above, the baking soda acts as the leavener, raising the bread without the use of yeast. While the Irish stick to those few ingredients ...