I enjoyed the “Guide to Good Meat” feature (“Ask the butcher”, Spectrum, March 23).
My paternal grandfather was a butcher — not a “victualler” — in the 1960s and early 1970s in Bundoran, County Donegal (population circa 2,000). He eschewed what he called a “sanitised label”. He described himself as a butcher who slaughtered animals and, then, sold their parts. An honourable profession.
My dear late mother, however, always instructed me to buy our meat from my grandfather’s trade competition, as she felt that grandad would give his best cuts to those who were not related to him. Reverse nepotism!
In the 1970s Bundoran had five craft butchers, now we have just one and two meat counters in local supermarkets.
Cormac Meehan
Bundoran, County Donegal, Ireland
