I've posted my method on eGullet before...
Corned beef in a slow cooker. Could take 8 hours or a little less...
Remove the meat when it's done cooking and use the meat-flavored water to boil red-skinned potatoes and carrots (my mom would also boil some turnips and onions). I use the red-skinned potatoes because you don't have to peel them and I use baby carrots because you don't have to peel them. Anyone sense a theme going on here?
Then in a separate pot I'll use some of the meat-flavored water to steam cabbage.
Eat it for days on end until it's gone and you're tired of looking at it. 
7 minutes ago, weedy said:it's just not got any real connection to Ireland or St Patrick's Day (which is also an American invention and obsession, mostly ignored in Britain and Ireland)
Yes, this has been discussed on eGullet before. It's unabashedly an American invention. Corned beef became the center of the meal because it was a cut of meat the poor Irish-Americans could afford and that no one else was buying at the time. How the times have changed...
edited to clarify
