'We worked hard. It paid off': Cork family mark 40 years of seafood business

“It’s all in the wrist,” Adrian Walsh assures me, as he takes me through the art of filleting fish.

“I’d know within five minutes if somebody could do it properly or not.”

I’m not going to try my hand at filleting fish this morning here at Ballycotton Seafood, who are celebrating 40 years in business, but, being a local, I purchase their freshly-landed offerings a few times a week.

It all began with Adrian’s father, Dick Walsh, 85.

“Dick, from a family of three boys and two girls, was a fisherman himself,” says Adrian. “He knew all about catching fish, filleting fish, selling fish and cooking fish.”

One day 40 years ago, Dick said to his wife Mary: “There’s grand fish going up to Cork and being exported.”

Riding a wave of ambition, he suggested: “We’ll open a fish shop”

What did Mary say?

“Let it with me,” she said.

“Three days later, Mary had a name, Ballycotton Seafood.

The rest is history...

The family-run business offers a huge array of fresh fish, from the boats to your table. They smoke their own fish using traditional oak methods. Oven-ready seafood is on offer daily from the Ballycotton Seafood in-house kitchen.

The successful business, which has evolved for four decades, started off in a sitting room!

“Ms Lynch owned An Siopa at the bottom of Midleton and she gave over her sitting room to us,” explains Diane, Adrian’s wife.

“Our first customer was Finín, of the well-known Midleton restaurant Finíns. He cycled in from his house to buy his supply of fish.”

The array of fish on offer in the small sitting room at the bottom of town was a sight to behold.

“People came in for a look,” says Diane. “They marvelled at the squid, the monkfish, the ray-wing, the John Dory, and the lobsters.”

Back then, I many of us only knew of smoked haddock and mackerel, which was usually presented for dinner on Fridays and Good Fridays. Right?

“That is true,” says Diane. “People were familiar with whiting and cod. We sold a variety of fish.”

Diane got hauled into Ballycotton Seafood at a young age.

“I met Adrian when I was 15 at a disco in Garryvoe,” she says. “I wasn’t going to be left go to it, but my aunt and uncle were visiting us in Loughaderra.

“My uncle said to my mother, ‘Ah, she’s only a young one, let her go out’.”

Diane was a good catch.

“I ed the shop when I was still in school and after meeting Adrian,” says Diane. “I was in fifth year, and I came in on Saturday mornings and school holidays to tail the prawns.”

“She was a fast learner!” chips in Adrian.

He was butchering at this time in Carrigtwohill, and at one time he thought of opening his own butcher’s shop before he got hooked on the seafood business instead. He was more surf than turf.

“Once upon a time, there were nine butchers in Midleton. Now there are just two,” Adrian says.

Diane did a secretarial course after leaving school, which was to serve her well in the future.

“You have to be a solicitor, an ant, a HR person, and do the banking, and quality control,” says Adrian. “Diane runs the show!”

When Anthony Walsh, who was helping to man the fish shop, left for West Cork, Adrian and Diane began to make plans of their own.

In October, 1985, the Dice Man came to town.

“Dick had some great ideas, and when we acquired 46, Main Street, Midleton, he brought the Dice Man, the street entertainer, down from Dublin for the opening,” says Diane.

“He was a huge attraction, and he did amazing things with the fish for the crowd of people on the street.

“We never d our business. It all came from word of mouth.”

Adrian and Diane were in business.

“We got married aged 23/24,” says Diane. “At the time, Mary’s brother, Sean, was hopping with ideas, and he opened a vegetable and deli shop in Castlemartyr.”

Dick and Sean were in business too.

“Dick said to Sean, ‘I’ll buy your house in Garryvoe’. The deal was done over a cup of tea, and today this is our fish shop and fish processing plant here in Garryvoe.”

The business grew and grew.

“We bought fish from local fishermen in Ballycotton, Helvic, Youghal, Kinsale and Union Hall,” says Adrian.

“Jolanta, with us 20 years in Midleton, works in the shop and in the kitchen. She was great when our kids were small. Jay, from South Africa, is our manager there.”

I’ve met Alan O’Loughan who manages the Ballycotton Seafood fish stall at the English Market where he is kept busy.

“Alan loves his job!” says Diane. “Like all our staff, he takes fierce pride in it and in the brand Dick created.”

How did the famous Ballycotton Seafood Pie come about?

“One day, Mary decided to make two fish pies for the dinner,” explains Diane. “One pie was enough, and she sold the other one to a lady who came back for more!”

Today, Ballycotton Seafood supplies wholesalers, shops, fish shops and restaurants as well as exporting its own brand of smoked salmon to and Scotland.

Diane wasn’t always an authority on all types of fish.

“When I went to Adrian’s’ house for the first time, Mary served up plaice on the bone. I didn’t know how to eat it!”

I tell Adrian and Diane that once, on holidays in , I got the whole deal on the plate, head, eyes, fins and all. I made a fast exit, which they find very amusing.

Like all businesses, Ballycotton Seafood was challenged during the downturn of 2007/2008 and by covid.

“We were shut down in a day,” says Diane of the pandemic, which began five years ago this month.

“Jay, our Midleton manager, cried and said what are we going to do? Hotel and restaurants were shut.

“Shops were allowed to stay open, and we were one of the first to put the plastic guard in place to protect people who were observing the two-metre distance rule.

“One Sunday evening, we got a phone call from a lady who couldn’t get her fish, and could we deliver it? We said yes. That was the start of our home delivery service during covid.

“Our incredible staff came in to keep our business open. Our loyal customers ed us always.

“Ballycotton Seafood is a family-run business, but we are nothing without our team,” says Diane. “They are the engine that drives us.”

They all muck in together here.

“One of us can be sweeping the floor, while another puts on the kettle for tea. We are all in it together,” says Diane.

They are all in the same boat!

“That is our motto,” says Diane, who is at the helm of her brilliant team, adding: “We miss our valuable of staff who have ed on.”

What of Dick, the businessman?

The couple laugh.

Dick is back in business.

“He is cutting sticks for kindling, and he has an honesty box outside his house,” says Diane. “The girls in the office made a sign for him.”

Will the third generation immerse themselves in the business?

“Our son, Kieran, is mad for it,” says Diane.

“He never liked college. He said he’d learn more from us.

“When he was knee high, he absolutely loved going down to the boats and driving in the van with his father. He’d stop at the shop for sweets and go to sleep in the van.

“Adrian did long hours in the early days. He’d be up at 4am to collect the fish and often not be home until midnight. I was like a lone parent!”

Once, Kieran had a run in with one of the sea creatures that were landed.

“We were here one day after school and I heard Kieran roaring,” says Diane. “He was about seven or eight. There was a basket of live whole crabs and one of them caught his finger!”

But that didn’t deter him from his future prospects.

“He absolutely loves Ballycotton,” says Diane. “He is a home bird. Our daughter, Rebecca, is currently in Scotland. She loves Ballycotton too.”

Ballycotton Seafood has been good to the Walsh family.

“If you asked me what I earn, I have no idea,” says Adrian.

“Do I want a new car? No. I am happy out in the van.”

Adrian and Diane are still young at heart.

“Sometimes, I can’t believe the age we are,” says Diane. “We worked hard, and it paid off.

“We went to Superquinn in Dublin for a tour. Fergal Quinn told us he built the team around himself, the secret of his success. It is our secret too.”

Life is good for the family.

“We often fish off the pier for mackerel,” says Diane.

Mary, who named the business, still has her say. “She says, we can’t her door. We have to cook the fish!”

Ballycotton Seafood employs more than 40 people who work across processing, the smokehouse, food preparation and in its three shops in Garryvoe, Midleton and the English Market in Cork city.