Visiting Kelly’s Butchers in Newport, Co Mayo, you come away feeling like you’ve witnessed something unique. It’s not just the impeccable cleanliness or the quality meats on view, not just the wonderful selection of mouth-watering sausages and puddings, or the banter and personal service that makes you feel a valued customer. It’s the combination of all those that allows the Kelly experience close the circle between tradition and the modern era.

Dominick Kelly’s Butchers has been a mainstay of Newport’s Main Street since the 1930s, when it was opened by Sean’s father, Dominick. It was, and still is, a small family business with a strong commitment to the local area. It is now run by Sean, his brother Seamus and Sean’s sons, Kenneth and Cormac.

Kelly’s operates its own licensed abattoir. Sean sources lamb and beef personally and has bought directly from local farmers for 40 years.

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Kelly’s produces and sells award-winning black and white puddings and sausages, still making traditional products to the same recipe as when it began. It produces the Putóg, a traditional black pudding originally put in a sheep’s stomach casing.

Kelly’s award-winning products have featured in magazines and newspapers around the world and tourists make a point of finding their way to Newport. The list of awards is hugely impressive and includes national and international recognition, such as the prestigious medal from the Confrérie des Chebaliers du Goute-Boudin, best artisan supplier at the Food & Wine magazine awards and an invitatation to display at a Bridgestone Good Food Guide launch.

A pint of the black stuff has taken on a different meaning when Kelly’s was presented with a gold medal from the black pudding fraternity of Lovers of Good Food in France. The winning entry was a black pudding in the shape of a pint of Irish stout. Twenty-three members of the group came to Ireland to make Seán Kelly a knight of the fraternity.

Kelly’s black pudding has moved off the breakfast table and on to the high-class dinner table. This opens up huge possibilities for Kelly’s. Many leading chefs include Kelly’s products on their menus. A book entitled The Proof is in the Pudding, with recipes using Kelly’s pudding from leading Irish chefs, is available with a foreword by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Building on success

The Great Western Greenway, Ireland’s longest off-road walking and cycling trail, passes right by Kelly’s. They’ve taken full advantage – by branding their seaweed puddings as Greenway Puddings, by joining the Gourmet Greenway Group and working with Fáilte Ireland.

Shauna Kelly (Seán’s daughter) runs Kelly’s Kitchen, the café next to the shop. This showcases Kelly’s products, plus good home baking and a cracking cup of coffee.

The future

Kelly’s products can be found in outlets all over Ireland. The company is currently building a new production unit having reached capacity in the old one.

Kelly’s has dipped a toe in the UK market, which will be expanded with the new unit. It has also launched a series of speciality sausages, which will be available countrywide when the new unit is finished in May.

Kelly’s has doubled its staff to 22 due to this expansion. Seán feels that, whereas there is great support for small (less than 10 workers) businesses, there is a serious need to look again at the help available for the next level by State agencies.

When asked to summarise his approach to the business, Sean said: “We make up to a standard not down to a price,” Quality is everything with Kelly’s. It represents real Irish tradition and is taking its quality artisan products to a new level to become one of our national treasures.

See www.kellysbutchers.com