Foodie Articles

Following the successful launch of our butcher shops in Dublin, at Avoca Monkstown and Rathcoole, we are delighted to announce that we are bringing our craft butchery excellence and expertise to the new Avoca Food Market in Kilmacanogue. The entire food market will include James Whelan Butchers and a number of new additions to Avoca.We […]

James Whelan Butchers Beef Dripping wins 3 star Great Taste Award! Selected as a 2014 Top 50 Food Beef Dripping, produced in Clonmel, Tipperary by Pat Whelan, a fifth generation butcher, has just been announced as one of the Top 50 best foods in the UK and Ireland. Of 10,000 entries to the Great Taste Awards, […]

The kids and I did some blackberry picking at the weekend.  It’s hard to believe that it’s that time of year again.  And where there are blackberries there are new school bags, packed to gills with new books and virgin stationery waiting to fulfil their very purpose.  In nature the schoolbag would be seen as […]

It can be quite the battle these days to get people to focus on value rather than price.  The two are not interchangeable.  It is also a folly to compare sectors.  Wearing a low quality t-shirt cannot be compared to eating low quality or poor food.   Before we get to the value over cost […]

Generally I’m not that fussy about how people use words.  Language is for the living and it evolves as we do.  Read any Chaucer poem and you’ll see how far we’ve come.  I’m not for jumping up and down at the omission or misplacement of an apostrophe, but there is a problem when we start […]

If you’re just up it might take a second to wrap your brain around this but stick with me.  New research has just been released that suggests people are not fat because they are lazy and don’t move but instead are lazy and don’t move because they are fat!  It took me a while too, […]

There’s nothing better in the summer than eating outdoors.  If you’re a fan of barbecuing then any excuse will have you outside wielding those long tongs and smoking up the air.   While we’re all about Barbecuing at James Whelan Butchers at present because of the ‘Tipperary BBQ Idol’ competition that’s ongoing for the month of […]

I’ve got great news – The Tipperary BBQ Idol has just been launched thanks to Tipp Fm, ourselves here at James Whelan Butchers and Dunnes Stores.  Besides the fun that we are all looking forward to during this month long competition, there is a fantastic prize attached; a top of the range BBQ, AND FREE […]

James Whelan Butchers and Dunnes stores of Oakville Shopping Centre have come together with Tipp FM this summer to bring you the ‘TIPP BBQ IDOL’ competition. Are you the envy of your friends with your BBQ skills? Are you the ‘Rachel Allen’  or the ‘Nevin Maguire’  of the BBQ? Do you have what it takes […]

You don’t need me to tell you how to cope with Irish summers.  I shouldn’t have to remind you that just because it says June on the calendar you still shouldn’t leave the house without being prepared for any and all weather eventualities – sun screen and bug spray will reside harmoniously with wet weather […]

In Cork City last week I found a little treasure near City Hall.  It’s called L’atitude 51 and is situated in what used to be The Lobby Bar.  Indeed throughout the 1990s and I remember upstairs at the Lobby for the hundreds of great music gigs held there. Outside hasn’t changed much from those heady […]

I’ve just finished reading about a new study coming out of America that has just shown how lethargy, and its close cousin obesity, can come from consistently eating processed foods and not just processed foods in huge amounts. Now we probably didn’t need another study to prove that junk food will make us lethargic and […]