Barry Fitzgerald and his team offer a textbook example of the dynamic modern Irish butcher-farmer in Fitzgerald’s of Fermoy.

“You can get whatever you want”, says Barry Fitzgerald, and even mere seconds spent scanning the shelves of Fitzgerald’s Butchers in Fermoy reveals exactly what Mr Fitzgerald promises. If you are after the arcane and unlikely of the carnivorous universe  – the beef heart; the short ribs; the ox tail; the pot au feu; the pickled tongue; the beef neck; the lamb sweetbreads; the lamb lap; the collar of pork – then it is all here, beautifully presented in a superbly designed butcher’s shop.
If having the rare stuff was the only USP of Fitzgerald’s, you would still make the detour off the M8 into Fermoy. But when you add in the fact that the beef is reared on their own North Cork farm, and processed in their own abattoir, then you complete the picture of the ideal environment in which to produce and process grass-fed Irish meat.
The Fitzgerald family have been serving the people of Fermoy since 1964, when Ned and Denis ran the shop that is now managed by Barry and Kieran. The new generation have brought a new style to the retail but retained the confident expertise and charming service that means it’s a pleasure to shop here, and it’s no surprise to hear that they have already begun to haul in the trophies, most recently for their pork sausages.
This continuum of skill and service is not something we should take for granted, for these family firms and family farms are the backbone of our carnivorous cuisine, and of our agricultural community. Fitzgerald’s shows both, at a confident, North Cork peak.