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Quality & Standards

History of Gallagher’s Craft Butcher and Private Abattoir

The First Generation

Charlie and Mary Gallagher started out farming on the Tyrone Donegal border in the 1960’s. Throughout the difficult times of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, closed border roads and a recession, their sons and daughters were reared in the rural tradition of farming and craft butchering. They then established their own abattoir . This abattoir and the ability to supply local produce particularly prime beef and spring lamb helped establish Gallagher’s Butchers with an excellent reputation in the area.

Homekill Hanging out in the Chill!

The Second Generation

C Gallagher & Sons, the abattoir and shop, was established by Charlie and Mary Gallagher. It wasn’t long before some of their family followed them into the business. There they began learning the trade from the ground up.
It was in that abattoir and shop they learned the traditional craft butcher skills that they still use today. The business grew and more shops were opened in Ballybofey and Strabane.
Now Gallagher’s have three shops and an abattoir in the Finn Valley area. The Gallagher family name is now firmly established as a well known, highly experienced and reputable name in the butchering business. You don’t need to look any further for your prime beef, spring lamb and succulent pork.

Gallagher’s as we know it

The Present Day

All of the slaughtering for the shops is carried out by Brendan Gallagher in the veterinary approved abattoir in Castlefinn.

Butchering is an art – a real artisan skill. Skills learned in a real craft butcher shop are the true skills that cannot be replicated, for instance, in the more mechanised environment of a factory setting. Understanding the cuts of prime beef and how to butcher the young spring lamb are skills only a master butcher can pass on.

The Future

The Future of the Craft Butcher
and Small Scale Abattoir

The original shop and abattoir in Castlefinn bought in 1969, known as Gallagher’s Butchers Castlefinn, is currently owned and operated by Brendan Gallagher. Brendan worked at his father’s heel in that shop from 10 years of age. He took over ownership and control 20 years ago. What he doesn’t know about the slaughtering and the craft butcher trade isn’t worth knowing.
Butchering is not a career that many young Irish people are moving into . It is an unusual career choice unless, like I do, you come from that family tradition. Meat industry workers, in this country for instance, now more often come from other European countries and further afield.

Real Butchers

From experience I can see that, the combination of the mechanisation of meat production and the power of the supermarkets has resulted in a generic product suitable for supermarket shelves.

That means the traditional and more unusual cuts are now only available from the traditional butcher shop like ours. In fact it is now only those shops with their own abattoir that can truly say that they can provide any cut you want . All other butcher shops only receive part carcasses that they can then cut up in their own shops.

A lot of butcher shops today are no better than supermarket shops. All the butcher has to do nowadays is open a bag and hey presto, he has got part of an animal sitting on his/her table. If the butcher you go to hasn’t got a soup bone or a dog bone it means most of their meat is coming out of a box. Why don’t you try it. Next time you are in ask them for a bone. If you get an excuse like “oh we cannot give them out as they might find their way back into the animal food chain” or something similar; then you know their meat comes in a box!

What’s Next?

So what about the future of butchering ? Well that depends on a lot of outside factors – mainly the customer. The power of the supermarkets has promoted price over quality to the detriment of a lot of small food businesses. The approximate number of butcher shops in Ireland fell from 1,300 in 2003 to 800 in 2019 and is still decreasing

So the traditional abattoirs and craft butchers, like us, are becoming a rare resource – often highly sought after by discerning chefs. In fact some very high profile chefs such as Gordon Ramsey, whose grandfather was a butcher, is a real advocate of reviving the traditional butcher skills which could otherwise be lost. All goods chefs should know which part of the animal the cut comes from in order to know the best way to cook it.

Read more on our Wholesale Services page

Wholesale →

The Homekill service has become very popular. That is where an animal can be slaughtered and expertly butchered for your freezer. This is very popular with Cattle, Sheep, Pig and also the hobby farmers.
You can get your animal turned into your choice of cuts of prime beef or spring lamb or succulent pork all fully traceable from your farm to your table.

Homekill →

Click & Collect

Like all all businesses we have had to move with the times – the Covid crisis increased the volume of business being done online country wide . We have decided to offer that service – Click and Collect to our customers as well. We also keep you updated on offers on our Facebook page.

Check out our online shop here.

Shop →

Whats to come?

The Third Generation

Now Brendan’s children the third generation are involved in working in the business with him.
Who knows what the future holds but I would like to think that the craft butcher and private abattoir will survive. Like all small businesses to survive we require local support from local people.
We thank all our customers for shopping local.

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