Farrelly’s Butchers: A History #2

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ctober’s a pretty darn good month for a party or two in Farrelly’s butchers.

Not only is it Anthony Jr’s birthday on the 3rd, and his sister, Helen’s, on the 13th, but there’s also the little matter that Anthony Sr signed on the dotted line for this long-standing business on October 6th, 1958.

And, by a happy coincidence, the younger (and slower) two of his three sons, Anthony and Padraig, signed on the dotted line on October 2nd, 1992. Having just recently lost their main jobs as schnapps-and-snap-happy Cabana’s barmen after that particular meat market closed down.

Incredibly, this much-loved Delgany butchers has been in the victualler business since January 2nd, 1858, when one Samuel Griffin leased the property to grocer and hotel keeper James Fitzsimon for the princely sum of £65 a year.

From there, it went from James Fitzsimon to Thomas French, and from French to Killincarrig’s Old Boss Hayden before, 100 years after that first handshake, George Samuel Robert haggled himself down to well below the asking price for Portarlington penny-pincher, Anthony Farrelly.

According to Padraig, there may very well be one or two other owners missing in this jigsaw, as, he’s convinced, not all the deeds have been unearthed as yet. That this Delgany butchers has existed as a butchers for 160 years, and that the Farrelly family have been behind the counter for the last 60 of those years, is what really matters here.

Having swung through the doors on July 7th last year to chart the Farrelly’s history in Delgany, it took the lads, oh, 13 months to get their hands on those early deeds. And, hey, as it always the case when queuing in Farrelly’s, it was almost worth the wait.

The plan is to call into Anthony and Padraig this Saturday, October 6th at 12.30pm, with a cake, and a smile, and maybe even one or two bad double entendres for their creaky repertoire.

In the meantime, this afternoon, we finally got the second part of the Farrelly’s fabled history…

You can catch the first part of our Farrelly’s Butchers history with Padraig here. You can also catch plenty more tall stories and garrulous gossip from the boys here.