{"id":307945,"date":"2026-02-20T11:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T11:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307945\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T11:49:09","slug":"it-isnt-just-a-job-its-our-life-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307945\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It isn\u2019t just a job, it\u2019s our life\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day at work, Louise Duffy carefully sets up her phone to film and upload videos of day-to-day life in a busy chipper. The Instagram<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> clips are watched by thousands of people across Ireland, with the backlit menus and shiny silver counter of Rio\u2019s Fish and Chips in Castletroy, Co Limerick<\/a>, now a familiar sight for the ever-growing number of viewers.<\/p>\n

Duffy has been manager and supervisor of Rio\u2019s since it reopened in August 2024 under new ownership, the previous iteration having closed during the pandemic. The business struggled with retaining customers in the first few months after it opened, until Duffy learned from a friend how social media could be harnessed to change a business\u2019s fortunes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a personal friend of Lee Reeves, the boxer [who has more than 60,000 TikTok followers],\u201d says Duffy. \u201cI asked him would he come over and do a little promotional video for Rio\u2019s for me, as a friend, and to be honest in it. So he came in and did a food review in December 2024. When he did the food review, we were inundated with business. People got a true sense of who we were at that time. It was like we relaunched Rio\u2019s through Lee.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this experience, Duffy started posting about Rio\u2019s on social media herself. Last October, she started daily posts, with her content ranging from showcasing new and creative menu items or banter with other staff, to interactions with customers. <\/p>\n

Duffy wanted to see if regular social media posts could help the chipper to attract more customers in a challenging market. The idea worked and she links it directly with an increase in customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone up nearly 40 per cent in sales since I started posting on social media every day,\u201d she says. \u201cWith the volume of customers coming through the door, there\u2019s five of us behind the counter now, it\u2019s that busy. It went from three staff a night, to five a night, and we could do with six a night at this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Posting on social media] has been absolutely fantastic for business, and I don\u2019t think we would thrive without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duffy has also found that posting on social media led to higher standards, as customers naturally expect the food from Rio\u2019s to look the same as it does on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I put out in the videos is obviously the best food I can put out, so those standards have to be maintained for customers too. It\u2019s a lot of pressure, and it\u2019s a lot of extra work, but it makes a massive difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rio'sRio’s manager Louise Duffy making a social media video with staff member Lee McAllister. Photograph: Brian Arthur \"LouiseLouise Duffy at work in Rio’s. Photograph: Brian Arthur <\/p>\n

Duffy\u2019s use of social media and turning viewers into customers is just one way of innovating as chippers fight for their share of the food market.<\/p>\n

In Rialto<\/a>, Dublin<\/a>, customers of Amber Grill can choose from a standard chipper menu and a fully vegan chipper menu. The owner, Jay Chen, decided to add the vegan menu after he picked up on growing demand. He also saw it as a way for his chipper to stand out in a crowded market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a chef for many years, and I knew that many people in Ireland were vegan and vegetarian,\u201d says Chen. \u201cAnd after we took over Amber Grill in 2022, some local customers came in and asked us if we did vegan food. After that, we decided to add a vegan menu. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur sales went up a lot after we put in the vegan menu; about 25 per cent of our sales are from it now. We didn\u2019t think it would be that popular when we started it, but quite a lot of people had asked for it. Our Beyond Meat burger is the most popular item on our vegan menu \u2013 we sell about 100 of them a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

As someone with considerable experience in the food industry, Chen has seen how the Irish palate has changed, even in the last decade alone, and how the basic fish and chips package is no longer the biggest seller in chippers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFish isn\u2019t as popular as it used to be in chippers,\u201d he says. \u201cTen years ago, I worked in another chipper, and we\u2019d do loads of fish, but now the most popular item on our menu is burger and chips.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Restaurant closures: \u2018If it\u2019s going to hit Dylan McGrath, it\u2019s going to affect many businesses. The model is broken\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Proof that the fast-food market has changed comes in the closure of a number of outlets within the last couple of years, including Jackie Lennox\u2019s in Cork<\/a> and Munchies in Bayside, Dublin. <\/p>\n

The reasons for the closures are many. Jackie Lennox\u2019s cited difficulty recruiting staff and high levels of paperwork, the owners of Munchies were retiring, while the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) says conditions continue to be difficult for chippers in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany chippers and traditional fish and chip shops fall within the remit of the Restaurants Association of Ireland,\u201d a spokesperson for the RAI said. \u201cA number of our members operate in the takeaway and fast-casual sector, including long-established, family-run chippers that play an important role in towns and villages across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen evidence of closures over the last two years, particularly among smaller family businesses. These closures are often linked to rising costs and falling margins.<\/p>\n

\u201cConditions for chip shop operators, like all food businesses, are challenging. The sector has been hit by rising input costs, increasing labour costs, higher energy bills, insurance and the impact of the 13.5 per cent VAT rate, which will thankfully return to 9 per cent in July 2026. Many operators are finding the cost of doing business extremely difficult, with margins being eroded entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JayJay Chen, who took over the Amber Grill in Rialto, Dublin, in 2022. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw \"TheThe Amber Grill in Rialto serves a vegan menu. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw<\/p>\n

Back in Rialto, Chen has observed a reluctance within the next generation of people whose parents run chippers to take over.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the other chippers are run by Italian families, and the owners are getting older, and their children don\u2019t want to carry on the business,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cRunning a takeaway is hard work, I think most people would rather work in an office. My partner and I work more than 50 hours a week running Amber Grill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amber Grill, was run by an Italian family for many decades before Chen bought it, and he is proud to carry on the Italian tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we took it over, it was run by an Italian family,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir son would still help out in the shop some weekends after we took over, but he had another job that was full time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we took over Amber Grill, we wanted to follow in the footsteps of the family who ran it before us. We didn\u2019t want to change much. And we knew it was in a good location, so we wanted to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also proud to carry on the tradition of chippers is Teresa Borza Di Nardi, who owns Borza in Tallaght village, Dublin. Her parents established the chipper in 1972, after previously establishing chippers in the Churchtown and Parnell Street areas of Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the reason we\u2019ve lasted so long in Tallaght is because Borza\u2019s has been family-run by the same family for decades,\u201d says Borza Di Nardi. \u201cAnd you\u2019ll never go into Borza and find only staff \u2013 there\u2019s always a member of the family here. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a thing that came from my mam and dad. We have very loyal staff, but they felt it was important to always have someone from the family in the shop. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my mam always said, \u2018Never serve something you wouldn\u2019t eat yourself\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Borza Di Nardi has clear memories of coming home from school as a child and helping out in the family business. While her own children have gone on to work in other industries, she says her nephews will probably carry on the business in the future. However, she is concerned that traditional Italian chippers might disappear from Irish towns and cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in 15 or 20 years\u2019 time, there\u2019ll be very few Italian families running chippers, but I hope I\u2019m wrong,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d hate to see them go, but the overall costs are so high. <\/p>\n

\"AlbertoAlberto Borza, Teresa Borza Di Nardi and Loreto Borza in family-run Borza’s in Tallaght, Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
\n \"ChipsChips ready for a customer at Borza’s. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

\u201cI have cousins who run chippers, and four or five of them are selling their chippers. They want out of the business. I think it\u2019s quite sad to be honest. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mam and dad worked so hard to build the business. They worked very hard and very long hours all their lives, and they worked hard for every penny they earned. I think it\u2019s very sad that we could be coming to an end of an era and a family tradition. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut working here isn\u2019t just a job for me and my family, it\u2019s our life. We\u2019ve never really considered it a job; it\u2019s just something we were born into.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Castletroy, Duffy from Rio\u2019s is confident that chippers will remain within the fabric of Irish life.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Best places for fish and chips in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m positive about the future of chippers,\u201d she says. \u201cBut you have to move with the times; you can\u2019t stay back in the past. If you\u2019re willing to move with the times and put in the extra bit of graft, you\u2019re going to get the results for it. If you\u2019re not going to do that, and your quality\u2019s lacking, people aren\u2019t going to keep coming to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every day at work, Louise Duffy carefully sets up her phone to film and upload videos of day-to-day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,615,13355,61,60,1396,709,5861,144772,5864,13356],"class_list":["post-307945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dublin","tag-food-production","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-magazine","tag-restaurant","tag-rialto","tag-takeaways","tag-tallaght"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}