Jackie, Mattie, Dino: A salute to the chipper legends of Cork

“Mattie’s was always more than a chipper. The shop, the food, and the man himself were a part of the city’s soul.”

That tribute to Cork chip shop legend Mattie Kiely in the 2010 Holly Bough summed up the reverence in which the stalwarts of the trade in city and county have long been held.

Yes, we have sporting legends, business leaders, actors and musicians who we respect and even sometimes adore - but few can hold a candle to the folk who spend decades of their lives giving us the feed of chips - and whatever you’re having yourself - when our stomachs think our throats have been cut.

When tributes poured in to Mattie after he hung up his apron in Maylor Street in 2007, it evoked memories for many that were tangible - you could almost smell the salt and vinegar wafting from the newspaper pages they used to come wrapped in.

To Cillian Brennan, who penned that Holly Bough tribute, a visit to the chip shop, which had been serving up grub since the 1940s, was akin to a pilgrimage to a place of worship - where all the rituals were the same.

You’d peruse the scribbled price list and savour the ambience in this most unique of chippers: the wine-red paint, the wall behind the counter which separated the shop from the kitchen, and the illogically placed rubbish bin...

If it was a regular customer, Mattie would ask, “De usual?”

“The ordering done, you would await the next step of the ritual,” recalled Cillian. “No money would change hands here. The purity of the procedure would not be sullied.”

There followed banter and ball-hopping from Mattie to the customer, before the food arrived. Ah, the food, the glorious food!

“The double cheese burger was mouth-watering. The batter burger was a taste sensation, and the chips themselves, married with a decent sploosh of vinegar, a dash of salt, and the newsprint, were a greasy delight.”

Mattie, being an old salt, was a bit of a stickler. He never offered up curry or chicken - those who ordered the former were “langers”, traitors tainting the sainted chipped potato!

As Cillian recalled, the food in Mattie’s was flavoured as much with the banter of the place as the vinegar out of the old Ballygowan bottle. The service and the characters are all part of the chip shop experience.

So deep was his love for Mattie’s that the late Cork musician Mick Lynch penned a song about it, and when a new chipper opened on the street in 2022, what else could they call it but Kielys?

I was reminded of the hero worship for chip shop legends in Cork when Jackie Lennox’s closed last weekend, after 73 years trading.

In a Holly Bough article about his soccer career in the 1950s, Jerry O’Sullivan recalled being mentored by its founder, a fine footballer himself.

“I left school at 14 and my first job was in Jackie Lennox’s chip shop in the Bandon road,” said Jerry. 

The first time I ever saw a TV was in there. We didn’t have one at home - we had a wireless that was operated by a glass jar with acid!

Cork exile Dave Hannigan summed up the egalitarian mood of the chip shop when he recalled: “A couple of days after Jimmy Barry Murphy gave a masterclass in the 1985 Munster Hurling Final against Tipperary, I stood behind him in the queue at Jackie Lennox’s.”

A long time now living in New York, Dave described how the classic Cork chipper experience was one of the biggest pulls for home.

I miss ‘chipper’ chips. I always have. I always knew I would. If you are a connoisseur, you will know exactly what I mean.

“Everybody has their favourites. It doesn’t matter if it’s the storied Lennox’s in Cork city or fabled Burdocks near Christchurch in Dublin.

“Like a pregnant woman lusting after chocolate, I hanker after their vinegary smell, I crave their too-salty taste on my tongue.

“Americans love their French fries and I’ve sampled every variation on that theme from New York to Seattle. I have found nothing yet that even remotely compares to a single from an Irish chipper.”

In The Echo’s weekly Corkonians Abroad column, when interviewees are asked what their dream day back home would comprise, it invariably ends with a bag of chips after a trip to the shops or seaside, or, of course a feed of pints. Musician Timothy O’Mahony was one of many when he said after his dream day in Cork, he would “finish the night with a meal of Lennox’s chips, and a cheese and onion pie on Bandon Road”.

Confusingly, there is another popular Lennox chipper in Cork - CF Lennox, which opened in 1953 on Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane.

An urban legend goes that Boyzone star Keith Duffy was at a loose end at Cork Airport, and asked a taxi driver to take him to the best chip shop in the city. He drove him to CF Lennox’s, where he stood at the counter having a feed while children mobbed him for an autograph!

The founder of that chipper was another legend of the trade. Francis Lennox was a top welterweight boxer in England, who had 123 fights and lost just four - and he beat those four in re-matches. He followed his parents over to Cork after the war and founded the Lennox business, with just six items initially on sale: Fish (usually whiting and cod) - 6d; Chips - 3d; Peas - 3d; Fishcake - 3d; Sausage - 3d; Minerals - 6d.

The hard work of those founders is often cited as the prime reason for their longevity and popularity.

But which is the finest chip shop in Cork? That debate would carry us long in to the night, and you would expect places like Dinos and KC’s in Douglas to figure. Further back, Tidleys in Bowling Green Street, Jerry’s in Church Street, and Mrs Haydens at the end of Blarney Street were also very popular.

In 2019, The Echo asked Joe Seward - something of a takeaway connoisseur - to name his top five.

Sadly - and perhaps a sign of the trying times for small businesses - his top two are now gone - The Fish Wife on MacCurtain Street and Jackie Lennox’s. He also gave nods to Sorrents and Mimmo’s in Cobh, and Frank’s in Carrigtwohill..

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Chippers have been a popular sight in Cork for more than a century.

In 1906, one is mentioned in a court case on Military Road, relying on trade from the men in the barracks nearby - the UK was perhaps head of the curve when it came to chippers.

In 1912, another court case mentions a “hot fish and chip potato shop” that opened on a residential premises in Robert Street, Cork. However, on the first night the 6ft furnace was lit, the pub next door was set on fire and, unsurprisingly, the venture was over before it had begun.

The shop was intended to be open to a late hour, the court heard, to be attended by “objectionable persons” who clearly had a severe case of the nibbles after a feed of drink!

In 1913, a Reynolds Lombardi had a fish and chip shop in South Main Street, and was in court to testify against a thief who stole three plates and two forks valued at 5d.

The Italians have long traditions of running chippers across Ireland and the UK, and a John Petrazzii came from Italy and opened a chip shop in Blackpool and another in the North Main Street.