Tourists don’t buy fish, laments Cork market trader who made Queen laugh

The fishmonger who starred in the most talked about photograph of Queen Elizabeth II’s State visit here in 2011 yesterday lamented "tourists don’t buy fish".

Pat O’Connell was commenting on accounts recently filed by family-business Kay O’Connell Ltd to the Companies Office that show that the business recorded pre-tax losses of €85,786 in the 12 months to the end of June 2013, and this followed pre-tax losses of €75,470 in 2012.

Based in Cork city’s English Market, the business has been selling fresh fish since 1962 and Mr O’Connell said that the losses arose from exceptional costs and investment in the business, pointing out that revenues remained steady at €2m per annum over the two years.

Mr O’Connell said that “the fundamentals of the business are very strong. We have maintained our sales figures in a very tough climate and I am hopeful that we will return to profit this year”.

Five members of the family work in the business and Mr O’Connell said that the profile that the business has received from the visit by the Queen to the English Market “has been fantastic. You couldn’t buy that publicity and a huge number of tourists have come to the shop, but tourists don’t buy fish”.

“It is difficult to know if the Queen’s visit has translated into cash for the business, but we have opened up a new smokehouse and will be exporting produce from it to the UK and we hope to see some benefit from that.”

He added: “Business is very tough at the moment. There seems to be a recovery in Dublin, but it hasn’t hit Cork yet. The Government needs to ease up on austerity and give people some confidence back.

He added: “The Queen loved it here. I was able to show her a wild salmon caught from the River Lee that same morning and I was able to tell her the time it was caught and who caught it and the story behind the fisherman. The local knowledge is precious and valuable.”