TIME TO
BUY IRISH
Searching for Irish quality Nuala Ryan meets Michelin Star chef Richard Corrigan, who explains why it is so important to buy Irish RICHARD Corrigan is standing in a field in Co Offaly. Today, this Michelin Star chef is visiting an organic farm run by a young, Irish, organic farmer who cares as deeply for Irish produce as Corrigan does. Irish produce is something that Corrigan believes a great deal in. I started out by asking Corrigan why we need to support and buy Irish products today. Never one to mince his words, Corrigan put it simply – if we don’t buy Irish produce, then no one else will! Corrigan, a native of Co Meath, has always kept a sense of Irishness in his food. Having grown up on a farm, he identifies an important cycle in Irish country life. This cycle is made up of key ingredients – community, farming, recycling and the church. Corrigan believes that buying Irish is also an important part of this cycle. “Buying Irish keeps our community together and keeps it strong. When we recycle a euro of our money in Ireland by buying
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Irish products and supporting the artisans, the organic and the free range, then we are recycling our money in our own community. “We must remember that there is nothing wrong with buying Irish. There is no shame in supporting your community and we are not being anti-Europe by doing so.” Corrigan demands excellence everyday in his business and believes we should demand the same excellence from our Irish products. So what should the Irish consumer look for? “Pure quality in Irish produce. People should look at Irish stock and have a wholehearted feeling of it being pure. I want people in Europe to look at an Irish rasher and know that it is the best bacon in the world.” According to Corrigan, we need to look carefully at how we support Irish produce in Europe. We need to be represented well, and our representation, be it politicians or other government organisations, need to do us proud when they’re abroad.
This means understanding what Irish really is and standing up for it in Europe to avoid losing out in the future. “We need a re-evaluation of how we buy Irish, how we grow it, how we sell it and how we market it. We need people to know that Irish really stands for something, and that it does not stand for the lowest quality. We need to step up and protect what we have, and demand the very best of ourselves.” To do this, Corrigan believes we need to grow customer awareness of Irish produce. We need to make people aware of the label and of what is Irish and what is not. Corrigan is extremely frustrated by foreign products that are repacked in Ireland and then classified as Irish. “People will buy Irish but they need to know where their food comes from. We need to make them more aware. And this needs to be something more than sticking a tricolour on a product! We need
a proper accreditation that can assure customers of what they are buying.” The future for Irish products can be bright, and according to Corrigan, this future lies in good business and ethics. One cannot stand without the other. “We need to give Irish produce a code of ethics, and create an extremely high standard that sets the benchmark for all other European countries. We need to improve ourselves and make ourselves better and have Europe looking up to us.” Corrigan’s message to us all is to shop! Shopping is very important. We need to buy less, shop more often, support our local farmers, our local shops, and our local pub. We cannot stand by and do nothing anymore. “If we do not support our local business then the high streets and villages in Ireland will be closed within the next 15 years,” Corrigan predicts. “There has to be a new beginning and it all leads back to buying Irish at home.” ■