Founded in 1962, K O’Connell Fish Merchants is a Cork institution. Known for their quality fish, the store, located in the English Market, has gone from strength to strength since the first fish was sold 64 years ago.
Initially founded by Kathleen ‘Kay’ O’Connell, the fishmongers hit international headlines when one of Kay’s sons, Pat, made Queen Elizabeth laugh during her historic state visit to Ireland in 2011.
The shop also featured in the hit tv show The Young Offenders, and has become a mainstay of all fish lovers living Leeside.
In recent years, K O’Connell was run by Kay’s sons, the aforementioned Pat and his brother Paul. It’s now in the hands of the third generation: Emma, Pat’s daughter, as well as Sean, her cousin.
Emma still remembers her grandmother Kay working at the counter. “I started working there on Saturdays and after school on Wednesdays. At the time, the counter was split in two. Paul and Kathleen had one side, and dad had the other. My sister also worked there and we used to debate whose counter we would work on. I always ran to Kathleen’s side.”
Customers often tell Emma that she is the double of her late grandmother. “She loved to spend money and have the nicest things. Sometimes dad turns around to me and says it’s like he’s looking at his mother. She was loud, she was chatty, she was funny. Everybody loved her.”
Kathleen passed away in 1998, when Emma was 12. “We were told she had cancer and the following week she passed away. She worked right up until the week before she died.”
Kathleen had her own quirks, with Emma explaining that she always asked her grandchildren to call her by her first name, rather than granny or nanny. “She was fantastic. She was so dedicated to the business. She’d prepare and cook her dinner behind the counter every evening, my grandad John would come pick her up, and they’d go home and eat it. She’d be back in again at the crack of dawn.”
Emma wants to continue on Kathleen’s legacy. “When the Queen came, it was all about the picture [of her laughing], but to me, people were missing the point of K O’Connell fishmongers, it’s about Kathleen.”
Despite the fact Pat and Paul ‘retired’ years ago, they are still very much around, Emma explains.
“They haven’t fully retired and I don’t think they ever will.”
Pat’s daily banter is sorely missed by Emma, but she knows she can always turn to him for advice, and she’s happy to be able to put her own stamp on K O’Connell’s.
What customers want has changed significantly over the last number of years, Emma explains. “Times have changed. The moms aren’t at home all day anymore, they are out of the home working. We needed to make the food easier and more efficient for people to prepare and cook.”
One of Emma’s goals was to expand the business, and that she has. K O’Connell now provides ready to eat and prepared meals, such as fish pies, chowder and marinated fish. “We opened up a production kitchen in Bandon. I wanted to do this for a long time, to have ready to eat, at-home ranges. A lot of our customers are parents who are working full-time. As much as they love our fish, it can be time-consuming to prepare it themselves. This way, they can pick up these meals and they’re ready to go.”
Emma also opened two ‘Kay’s Kitchen’s’, one in the English Market right across from the original fishmonger’s and the other in Dunnes Stores on Patrick’s Street. Here, people can pick up freshly cooked fish meals, light bites and takeaways – and those in the English Market can even buy their fish fresh and have it cooked right in front of them.
Emma’s ambitions don’t end there. She’s currently setting up another company that will sell fish-based baby purees. “That’s never been done before. I came up with the idea a year ago, but I was humming and hawing about it. I spoke to dad, and we agreed that everybody wants their children to eat healthy, local and fresh produce.
“At the moment, there is very little of that food out there for kids,” she says, explaining it can be hard to know what is in certain baby foods, with many being ultra processed. “I am a mum of two little girls, so I know.”
Emma saw a gap in the baby food market, so she took the leap. She’s trialled and tested them, with five flavours almost ready to go. She also got a marketing company to conduct some research with families, with the results very promising. “It’s called First Catch, and people seem very excited about it. I am too.”
Social media plays a big role in the business nowadays, she adds. “We put up recipes about how to make hake, and the sales of hake went through the roof. We want to make it as easy as possible for people.”
Emma’s favourite part of her job is getting to know the customers and seeing them arrive every week. “I’ve been working here 25 years now, if not longer, and I served customers at the start who are now coming in with their kids. It’s lovely to have that connection with customers, we know their name, we know their families.”
Emma loves the English Market setting, adding that the shopping experience is very personal for the customers and vendors alike. “We have a laugh, a joke, a giggle. You don’t get that very much in bigger chains these days, you’re in, you’re out, it’s more impersonal.”
Despite all her passion for her job, there was a time that Emma considered doing something different. She worked in Brown Thomas in 2014, after wanting to spread her wings somewhere else.
However, home is where the heart is, and after a year and a half, she came back to K O’Connell’s. She missed the banter with her family, co-workers and customers. “I feel at home in the Market. Kathleen and my dad always said I’d be the last one here. I love it, I feel safe and happy here. You’d come into work in bad humour, and all it takes is one customer to put a smile on your face.”
Emma has two daughters, and her six year old loves ‘helping out’ behind the counter by handing out the bags of fish when she pops in for a visit. So who knows, the fourth generation of K O’Connell’s could already be in the making!
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