Best bangers in the entire country!
A generational family butchers is producing bangers to beat the best – picking up three gold medals at the recent gala awards night staged by the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland at the Curragh racecourse.
Finnerty’s butcher’s on Oughterard’s Main Street – owned by former Galway footballer Tommy Finnerty – saw off around 300 competitors at National Sausage and Pudding Competition, with Finnerty’s the only entrant in the country to come out with three golds for their sausages.
Tommy, who also trained the local club to All-Ireland Intermediate glory in 2020, and his team saw their traditional pork creation grab gold number one in the Traditional Sausage section.
Two more then followed in the battle for Speciality Sausage supremacy, with both the pork and leek and the pork and garlic combos hitting the heights.
As if that wasn’t enough, the pork and black pepper candidate served up a silver award.
A very happy Tommy declared: “This is a huge event and to win three golds was fantastic. It was a great achievement from our four entries.
"We are so thankful to our long-serving staff both in Oughterard and Galway’s Eyre Square Centre.
“The judging is very strict and all done on flavour, texture, balance, appearance and overall quality. There are no shortcuts. What you put in comes out. To me a homemade sausage is like homemade bread. You just can’t beat it,” he said.
The ACBI said: “Judges praised the exceptionally high standard of entries in this year’s competition. The awards went to producers who demonstrated outstanding quality and skill.”
Customers have been enjoying the Finnerty’s sausage experience ever since Tommy’s dad, Roger, set up his landmark Oughterard shop in 1962, with Tommy expanding the business by adding the Galway city premises in 1995.
Each day around 600 come off the production line for sale as sausages, or sausage meat, either for the two shops or for delivery to customers as diverse as Wildlands and Enjoy in Moycullen, the prestigious Renvyle House Hotel and Cashel House Hotel in Connemara, and Sullivan’s country grocer and Clancy’s Bar in Oughterard.