Recalling the closure of Cork's ‘Jackie Lennox’ chipper one year ago

On Sunday, October 6, 2024 Jackie Lennox, one of Ireland’s most iconic chippers, dished up its last orders after 73 years of service.

Following the shock announcement of its impending closure six days earlier, a heartbroken Brian said: “After 45 years in the business, time has caught up with me and my sister Frances, who’s been in the business for 55 years.”

Within minutes, the news was being shared in messages to virtually every corner of the country and across the oceans.

The news coverage, featured on RTÉ and numerous radio stations and headlined by all the national daily newspapers, was completely unprecedented.

Set up in 1951 by Jackie Lennox and his wife Eileen O’Callaghan, the chipper was the first purpose-built fish and chip shop in Ireland.

Their first venture was to open a confectionery business over a bookie shop in Blackpool in the late 1940s.

With encouragement from his mother, who ran a very successful café in England, he converted it to a fish and chip shop in 1951 and it became an overnight success.

It was there that Jackie, who was born in Broughton, Salford, near Manchester, met his wife Eileen.

After their marriage they purchased a cottage in Bandon Road from Sean Cronin, a former Lord Mayor of Cork.

They demolished and rebuilt the building, turning it into the most modern fish and chip shop in the country, which opened on Tuesday, May 13 1952 when the menu read “Chips 3d, peas 3d, Pies 3d, Sausages 3d, Fish 3d”.

For the 25th anniversary of the Grand Opening in 1977, they treated their patrons to meals at the 1952 prices.

Brian, reeling in the years, said he remembered on Good Friday they would serve a tonne of potatoes and half a tonne of fish — one day, a fellow asked for chicken and the queue turned on him.

And, it wasn’t only on Good Friday either that people didn’t eat meat, it was every Friday and the 40 days of Lent.

Did you know that up until Christmas 1976, Lennox’s opened just five days a week and remained closed on Sunday and Monday.

It was after Jackie’s daughter Frances and her husband, the well-known soccer star Dave Wigginton, joined the family business that they opened for seven days.

The couple owned a very successful chip shop in Blackrock which they sold in order to join with Frances’s parents.

While Brian and Frances were custodians of the chipper at the time of its closure, their seven siblings — Mary, John, Peter, Martin, Eileen, Duncan and Louise and their grandfather Con O’Callaghan — had all worked behind the counter, serving up the finest of chips and battered cod and haddock to generations of Corkonians.

And, according to an article in the Irish Times they served an estimated 14m bags of chips.

You never knew what celebrities you were likely to meet queuing in Jackie’s; international sports stars, film stars, poets, musicians, politicians, college students and cadgers all lined up enjoying the Cork banter, patiently waiting to be served.

Memorabilia on the wall included photos of Jackie from his Cork Athletic FC days on the FAI Cup and League winning teams, while standing beside him was his colleague and chipper assistant manager Dave Noonan.

Pride of place behind the counter was a Golden Disc from U2’s 1983 War album, this as a tribute to the band who were regular callers to the shop when performing in the Arcadia in their early days.

Did you ever think that the closing of a chipper would result in so many expressions of grief?

‘I’m heartbroken, boy,’ said one while another former patron, David Lavelle, flew back to Cork from Denmark for one last Lennox feast.

Understandably, the Lennox family admitted that it was a sad day for them all.

Customers and former patrons reeking in nostalgia, many who had travelled hundreds of miles, formed long winding queues to purchase their last chipper supper, their potato pie or a battered cod for the sake of ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

Last August, another well-known Cork chipper, Catch of the Day, opened at the former Lennox's premises, bringing fish and chips back to the iconic building.