Dunne’s boast best sausages in the country

Derek Dunne, the traditional butcher on Wicklow town’s main street, has landed the All-Ireland title for the traditional butcher’s sausage.

Derek Dunne Butchers has been providing customers from Wicklow town and surrounding areas with a service for over 200 years. The family run business has been in the Dunne clan for five generations and counting,

Earlier in the year, Derek scooped the award for best traditional sausage in Leinster, as he beat off competition from 60 other competitors from the province. The sausages were subjected to two tests, appearance and taste, and according to the team of judges, the Wicklow sausages went down a storm.

That sent him through to the exclusive All-Ireland part of the final.

Derek, who has operated a business on Wicklow’s Main Street for the past 31 years, said, ‘it was great to win the Leinster competition but we knew the competition would be fierce in the nationals. We had our fingers crossed but we knew there were plenty of other great sausage makers out there.’

At an event in Dublin’s CityWest Hotel last Wednesday, chuffed chopper Derek swept the board with judges at the Associated Craft Butcher of Ireland’s sausage and pudding competition.

After his earlier Leinster triumph, Derek is now Ireland’s finest sausage maker – a fact his customers already knew.

‘I’m absolutely over the moon,’ Derek said after his bangers were voted the best traditional sausages in Ireland by the expert judges in a unanimous vote.

Derek’s sausages are only available in his shop and the recipe has been handed down through generations of the Dunne family.

‘I have been making the same sausages here in the shop since I opened, and, before that, for too long than I care to remember,’ said Derek.

‘So it´s great that we have been recognised like this in such a prestigious competition.’

In the 2013 event, Derek missed out on entering by arriving late for the competition, but this year, he swept the board.

‘I was unlucky last year so perhaps that played a part this year,’ he said.

‘It´s the same recipe that my father taught me, and his father before him, so we´re not going to change it now.’

Even prior to the national win, Derek Dunne Butchers weren’t exactly strangers when it came to receiving accolades and awards. The establishment was already renowned throughout the county for their award winning black and white puddings.

Full story from the Wicklow People

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