Chapter Twenty.
The Irish Boys.
Prior to 1954 most of the Irish Cattle went live to England, to be killed in English Abattoirs.
The two main reasons, bad refrigeration and being killed in England could be sold as English Beef at premium prices.
The main shippers were the Goodman Family, the Horgan Family, the Purcell Family and the Faheys and The Mollihan Brothers.
The English Boys would come to Dublin Saleyards, each Monday and buy cattle.
Tom Swires of Leeds, Willy Parker Leicester, Weston Brothers, City Meats, Monks of Birmingham, to name but a few.
This was a man called Seamus Coonahan who was a character and a half.
Seamus was a good Dealer and good Operator.
He decided to build a State of the Art Beef Plant in Grand Canal Street Dublin.
Seamus had plans drawn, modeled on the Argentinean plant at Yaguanne in Buenos Aires.
The plant was vertical dressing, German Engineering and 20 years before its time, added to this, it was going to cost a cool million pounds. 50 million of todays money.
Seamus had the right idea, he would kill 2000 Cattle a week, send to England in Carcase form.
He would have the market to himself. He borrowed the money from Eagle Star Insurance,
They backed the Man and the idea, when the Plant was built in 1956 it had gone well over budget.
Seamus had no money to buy cattle, Eagle Star put Receivers into Grand Canal, "The White Elephant of Dublin" Crowleys at Roscasa, previously mentioned, had been the Kings of the Meat Trade prior to this.
Frank Quinn was killing a few cattle, in the Old Dublin Abattoir and in 1957 could sense things were changing, health controls becoming more strict, lucrative quotas to the USA for Cow Beef were on offer.
Frank rented Grand Canal for 100 pounds a week, Eagle Star were happy to take his money.
Terry Kennedy was Company Accountant and General Manager, that was the birth of Irish Meat Packers.
Frank was a drinking chronic alcoholic and what a character, yet clever shrewd and a good Meat Man.
They made millions for the next five years and built a new state of the art plant a Leixlip and a second one at Middleton in County Cork.
In 1968 Cork Marts wanted to buy into the Meat Trade.
Frank sold IMP for 3 ¼ Million pounds. The Deal was 1 ¼ million Cash, one million after first year, if they made money, balance in the second year if they made money. Terry Kennedy stayed on as Company Secretary, Frank retired.
Year One they made 14,000, so paid Frank his million.
Year two they lost 300,000, however Terry Kennedy took the Auditors around the Cold Stores three times, placing Stocks at a value of 500,000.Therefore in profit.
Terry paid Frank his second million, resigned before the shit hit the Fan.
Cork Marts blustered on for ten years and never made a profit. The other big players were Clover Meats who combined Bacon with the Beef at Waterford, Clonmel, Limmerick and Cork.
They were big players, the bacon subsidized the beef for years, they also had a good Domestic Market for canned goods and sausage.
The rest of the Irish Meat Industry was FMC at Sallins and Newry FMC bought Newry from Dalgety in 1970.
Alf Meade had Bagnastown and Omagh, the Meade Lonsdale group mentioned Earlier.
Jack Clarfelt had Castlebar and Monaghan bacon and beef.
Then there was Lyons at Longford, Hanlys at Roosky all small players.
The Irish were twenty years ahead of the English in Big Plants, Beef plants, especially.
Within fifteen years Larry Goodman had opened Dundalk, Hugh Tunney had opened Clones.
The lambs in Ireland were controlled by Paddy Lynch at Ballinsaloe, Paddy Nolan at Ballymon and later Paddy Lynch at Ballyjamesduff, Lyons at Longford and Bert Allen at Slayncy Meats.
When Intervetion came in 1974 all the lamb plants turned to beef, building the famous Beef Mountain, profits were 100 pounds an animal and more, no plants had facilities to Freeze their full production, beef was frozen in containers, on pallets in Public Cold Stores.
The plants just kept killing, the Government just kept paying.
This left all the lambs in Ireland to Halal meats in Ballyhaunis, who had purchased a little lamb plant for 44,000 pounds.
I sold the first lambs for Ballyhaunis in 1974 to Socieviandes in Paris.
By 1976 they were killing 10,000 lambs weekly, by 1981 had 5 plants in Ireland, one I Wales, one in Scotland doing 40,000 lambs weekly.
The Rolls Royce Bicycle Syndrome, hit Sher Rafique, he walked away with nothing.
Goodman went from strenth to strenth controlling seven plants in Ireland 40% of the kill.
Noel Keating was a lovely man, he had a Wholesale Business in Ossery Road on the North Wall in Dublin, he also had a good Retail Shop in Thomas Street.
He built a state of the art plant at North Dublin Geared for 2000 cattle per week.
He then took over the IMP Lamb Plant at Athelegue in Rosscommon, Keypack, are second only to Goodman today, in England and Ireland.
Sadly Noel had a Brain Hemmerage and died, thankfully his Family run the business today.
The Coops came and went yet still involved in the Bacon Business.
Dawn Meats are big players today in England and Ireland.
So Ireland really is down to the Big Three companies.
There are still successful Private Big Plants Frank Mallons Liffy Meats and Bert Allens Slayney Meats.
There used to be only six export plants in the North of Ireland now there are a few more, also with Plants in the UK, Dungannon Meats, Colraine Meats.
Having said this Larry Goodman Lords over the whole of Ireland, the whole of England.
King Larry is the Biggest Meat Man in Europe Today.
In 2004 Goodman made his Companies Unlimited, that is a man with the Courage of his Convictions in 1991 Larry lost 161 million pounds in Iraq.
Any Lesser man would have laid down and cried or even died. Not Larry Goodman he stayed in the game. When the going gets Tough, the Tough get going.
Larry Goodman is one man that would have had no qualms about George Bush Invading Iraq.
To Wake up one morning knowing you have lost 161 million, through no fault of your own, quite a thought.
The Goodman Group are big in Burgers, Portion Control, as well as International Trading on a Global basis.
So like England, Ireland, has seen some great changes in the last fifty years.
From Live Cattle walking on the Boat, to Supermarket Trays leaving the Meat Plants.
The men of Vision like Larry Goodman saw the need to go from Live Cattle to Meat Plant.
These men of Great Vision are still as interesting today, as they were 50 years ago.
One can not talk of the Irish Meat Trade without mentioning Hugh Tunney.
Hugh Tunney was born in 1928 in the small farming village of Trilick in County Tyrone, Mid Ulster. He was the eldest of five sons and four daughters, born to an Alcoholic Catholic Cattle Dealer and his wife. For any Catholic Family in recently annexed Ulster as part of the British Empire, after the Irish War of Independence followed by the Civil War, these were very tough days Hugh’s father was a very clever man and an excellent judge of cattle with is sharp wit, and a Good Eye, had no problem making a comfortable living as a dealer.
However, alcohol was his Achilles Heel making any success short lived and the children grew up with a constant fear of insecurity. Making matters worse, he was a very violent drunk which made the boys all turn away from their father and towards their mother.
It was agreed that at the age of fourteen Hugh would leave school and be apprenticed to the local butcher in the next village of Irvingstown. This was normal for the war years of 1942. Hugh had no fear of hard work and took to the job as a duck to water, learning how to buy the live animals, slaughter them and then cut<
