Nenagh butcher’s store avoids the chop

The threatened closure of one of Nenagh’s best loved butcher stores has been averted.

Denis Quirke, the proprietor of Denis’s Meats in Kenyon Street, feared his shop would have to close for good after he announced his retirement last month after almost half a century selling meat and poultry.

But now Denis has revealed that a relative of his has agreed to continue running the highly popular business.

Collette Ryan, a daughter of Dan and Mary Ryan from Ballyphilip, who previously worked in the store for a couple of years, is taking over the business with her husband, Roy.

Denis said the existing staff would continue to work in the store, headed up by top butcher, Brian O’ Farrell. “It’s great that all the existing staff are staying on and that the store will continue to get all meat and poultry from the existing highly reputable suppliers,” Denis told The Guardian.

Denis says he’s delighted that Collette and Roy have decided to keep the same name - Denis’s Meats - over the door and maintain that reliability of service that his customers have enjoyed since he opened his own butchering store in lower Kenyon Street in 1977.

He has been operating out of the current store further up the street since 1988.

Denis, who is known locally as “The King of the Butchers” bows out on Saturday, June 28. The new owners will take over the following Monday morning.