End of an era for Carrick-on-Suir's Main Street as butcher John Hogan and his wife Linda retire

Carrick-on-Suir butcher John Hogan and his wife Linda bade farewell to their loyal customers last week as they retired from their Main Street business run by three generations of the family for nearly 70 years.

The departure of the Hogans is truly the end of an era for the town centre’s traders but the business will continue on under the new ownership of Paul Tobin, who runs a butchers shop on Clonmel’s Abbey Road.

John Hogan said he and Linda are retiring to spend more time with their family. They plan to continue working but at a less hectic pace and without the same pressure and hours that running your own business requires.

The butchers shop John took over from his parents 24 years ago, is a well known local landmark at the entrance to the town’s historic West Gate and has a renowned reputation for the high quality of its meat and for supporting local producers.

The name over the shop door is that of his grandfather John Kehoe, who founded the business 68 years ago. He was a cattle dealer as well as a butcher.

John’s mother Carmel worked in the shop with her father. Carmel and her husband Tom Hogan from Mooncoin, county Kilkenny went on to take over the business.

John joined his parents in the shop in November, 1989 after completing three years training in butchering at Dublin’s Cathal Brugha Street College, now known as the Technical University Dublin School of Culinary Arts & Food Technology. He took over the running of the shop nearly 24 years ago following the death of his father.

Linda left her banking job to join him in the business and his children Avril and Conor worked there at weekends and during school and college holidays.

John recalls at the beginning of her career between six and eight butchers shops operated in Carrick-on-suir. There are now three butchers shops in the town.

He said they were fortunately always a very busy shop and “punched well above their weight” in terms of the volume of meat sold. As well as a strong customer base in the town, John and Linda also had many loyal customers from rural communities in Carrick’s hinterland.

The weeks before Christmas were always among the busiest of the year for John, Linda and their staff as they worked long hours getting the turkeys and hams ordered by their customers ready.

The biggest change John experienced during his careers was the increase in customer demand for “convenience meals” prepared by the butcher, ready for the customer to pop in the oven or on the frying pan.

“We tried our best to keep up with the times. We did a huge variety of ready meals from stir fries and meatballs to chicken curry. They are very popular especially with the younger customers,” he explained.

The good news for customers of Hogans Butchers is the new owner, Paul Tobin, will continue to stock the same fresh ready meals John has made for years in the shop. John will spent the first few days after Paul took over last week working alongside him and his staff to show them how they are made.

John always took pride in selling Irish produced meat and sourced it from local producers where possible. His lamb was sourced from farmers Declan Hahessy from Curraghkiely near Rathgormack; David Flynn from Ballydurn, Carrick and Brian Kehoe from Ballydine, Kilsheelan.

Jim Davis from Stoneyford in county Kilkenny supplied cattle for the shop for over 40 years buying them for John in Carrick-on-Suir and Dungarvan Marts. The shop also stocked the best of Irish pork, bacon and poultry.

John operated his own abbatoir on Carrick-on-Suir’s Quay up to a few years ago where livestock he sourced for meat for the shop were killed. Rising costs associated with new regulations prompted him to close the abbatoir. Paul Tobin has purchased the abbatoir site along with the shop.

What John loved most about his job was enjoying a bit of banter with his customers.

“I liked the people and having the craic with them,” said John. “I must say we were blessed with the customers we had. I want to thank my customers who were so good to me.

John said he was very grateful to his parents for passing on the family business to him.

“They both worked really, really hard in the business and so did my grandfather. It has been wonderful to me and everything I have is as a result of the business and its customers.”

He is also very grateful to Linda for all her hard work and support in the shop over the years and paid tribute to their great friends and neighbours among the town’s traders and wishes them all the best in the future.

And John wishes his successor Paul Tobin and his family the best of luck as the new custodians of the butchers shop. “I hope it’s as good and successful for him as it has been for us.”