Pat O’Connor & Son

Article From the Limerick Post

O’Connors – Limerick’s longest serving family butchers

The locations for the various O’Connor family butcher shops changed from the late 1800s, spanning the Mary Street/ Bridge Street area where first and second generations operated, to third generation John O’Connor’s base at Wickham Street in the 1920s. This shop was taken over by Noel, uncle to Noel O’Connor on William Street today, in the 1970s and another branch was opened at No. 62 Catherine Street in 1964 by Noel Snr’s nephew Pat. He traded from both in 1969 as Pat O’Connor Butcher Shops, the fourth generation in the business. Pat is father of the fifth generation current proprietor Noel O’Connor. Their shop opened its doors on 43 William Street where it has served the people of Limerick into April 2018. There’s another shop again... to mention No. 74 Catherine Street which was opened by Elizabeth, mother to Pat and continued by Noel Snr into the 2000s. There is no doubt that today’s Noel O’Connor, of fifth generation successful butcher stock, is part of Limerick’s oldest family butchers.

Working out of 43 William Street for the past five decades, the shop that was opened by his father Pat, Noel is very much looking forward to the imminent opening of the new premises at No. 62 William Street – on the corner of William Street and Little Catherine Street. There has been a tremendous amount of work and planning put into this new premises which will incorporate all that is good in modern retailing, without forgetting about the traditional skills and methods of butchering handed down from generation to generation. Noel, who also runs the company’s cutting plant in the Food Centre in Raheen where meat is cut and prepared for some of Limerick’s and The Wild Atlantic Ways finest hotels and restaurants.

Enjoy the O’Connor ‘farm to fork’ ethos. Sourcing quality stock is obviously cornerstone to having a top tier product to sell. The O’Connors are not foundwanting in this department as each of the generations was used to the farming aspect of producing good beef and lamb. This practice has continued into today with Noel having his own herd yieldingthe finest Angus and Hereford beef to hand from County Limerick. Noel’s own farm and his Raheen based cutting site ensure a continuous supply of excellent meat, that is cut and aged beautifully for butter-soft beef and lamb of rich depth in flavor. In fact, Noel’s grandfather John used to leave the sheep into Thomond Park to graze and fertilize the pitch during the summer months when rugby season was closed!