Nolan’s butcher shop nominated in the UK’s ‘Rural Oscars’

Nolan's butcher shop in Kilcullen, Co Kildare has been nominated for the "Champion of Champions Award" in the Countryside Alliance awards which will be held in the House of Lords in London on Wednesday.

The awards, which the organisers describe as the “rural Oscars”, honour local food businesses, rural enterprises and village shops.

To mark 10 years of the awards, the alliance has brought together 31 former award winners to select the Champion of Champions. Nolan’s was the 2011 UK and Ireland Champion and is the only Irish food business to have won this title.

James Nolan, who runs the butcher shop with his wife Emma, is the fourth generation to stand behind the counter in the family business that was established in 1886. It employs 25 people in the Co Kildare village.

The shop is no stranger to awards, having won many craft butcher prizes.

Last November it won an award for its low salt home-baked ham at the European Fins Goustiers awards in France.

It also won the award for the best traditional pork sausage at the Irish Pork Society’s 2014 awards.