The legendary Jackie Lennox chipper in Cork is to close after more than 70-years in business with its owners citing the increased pressure of running a small business as among the reasons for their decision.
The famous chip shop, founded in 1951 and widely regarded as an institution in the city, will cease trading on October 6 with the loss of 30 jobs.
The shock announcement was confirmed by its owners, brother and sister, Brian and Frances Lennox, to staff on Monday night. They said the decision to cease trading had not been easy but was not taken for the “lack of business”.
“From a business perspective, we are at our busiest, the queues are unreal, but the stress of trying to run a business on our own, it’s difficult. And finding staff has been a huge issue too,” Brian told the Irish Examiner.
“Paperwork has become a burden. Every year, there seems to be more paperwork to fill in. The powers that be need to embrace small family businesses.
“It’s like a death in the family. It was just heartbreaking to make the decision and to have to tell staff on Monday night.
“We’ve been in it since we were kids. But it’s just become tough, very tough to run a small family business.
“We are so proud of our parents who opened the shop 73-years ago and who raised nine of us over the shop.
“I honestly thought we could get to 75-years but it’s just a step too far.” Their father, Jackie Lennox, started a confectionery business over a bookie shop in Blackpool in the late 1940s.
With encouragement from his mother, he converted it to a fish and chip shop and it became an overnight success, and he planned to expand.
He bought a cottage on the Bandon Road and along with his wife, Eileen O’Callaghan, they built the chipper on its ground floor, with fish, chips, peas and fish cakes on the menu. The family proudly claimed that it was the country’s first purpose-built fish and chip shop.
The peas would often spill from holes in the sides of the cake boxes in which they were first served, before they began to wrap the food in newspaper.
Mr Lennox introduced the “metal bar queuing system”, and also introduced the concept of a fish “supper” and chicken “supper”.
He developed the menu over the years to include chicken, burgers and sausages and he built a reputation for using only the finest of fresh ingredients.
As its reputation grew, the Jackie Lennox chipper became a must-see for tourists and a byword for a takeaway. Mr Lennox died in 1994 shortly after his retirement. Eileen, died two years later.
On Monday, a heartbroken Brian, said after 45 years in the business, time has caught up with him and his sister, Frances, who’s been in the business for 55 years.
“We have had so many loyal customers over the years, and I’m sorry to them,” he said.
“And those customers who come in for the one battered sausage, or the one potato pie, I really feel for them tonight too. As I do for the staff.
It’s just been so difficult.” Local Sinn Fein TD Donnchadh Ó Laoighaire said he was heartbroken to hear of the closure, describing Lennox’s as the “greatest chipper of all, an absolute institution for generations of Corkonians.
“It’s a difficult time for the Lennox family, for the staff and their families,” he said.
“It’s the end of an era for a place that has a special place in the heart of Cork people.”