'We sell seven tons of spiced beef at Christmas': Meet the people on the festive frontlines

From panto dames to Christmas tree growers, butchers and toy shop owners, meet the people on the festive frontlines with Gemma Fullam

Sat, 13 Dec, 2025 - 11:16

Gemma Fullam

Colm Crowley, Christmas tree seller

The phrase ‘send it to the woodchipper’, which originated with 1996 cult classic Fargo, has become shorthand for something being unceremoniously discarded. Come January, it is the fate of many a Christmas tree, but it doesn’t have to be.

“I always thought it was a bit of a shame that the Christmas tree doesn’t last for longer than the Christmas period,” says Blackrock-born Colm Crowley, 48, who’s been in the Christmas tree business since 1988, when, fresh out of business school, he “spotted a gap in the market” for premium trees, “and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since”.

Colm Crowley who runs a Christmas business selling Christmas trees at Mahon Industrial Park Cork. - Picture Dan Linehan

While Crowley’s cut trees do ultimately end up in the woodchipper (happily getting another life as compost or garden mulch) and are still the tree of choice for most, his pot-grown trees are now on their fifth Christmas and “looking fantastic” after the recent rainy spell. He launched the sustainable rent-a-tree option in 2021, and it’s been a big hit.
Customers tend to book the same tree year on year and get very attached to the point of naming their tree (think ‘Spruce Springsteen’). For many, the annual tree collection has become an integral part of their festive family traditions.

The pot-grown Norway Spruce was the traditional cut tree of the 1970s and ’80s, but fell out of favour when the non-shedding variety came along. “It’s a lovely tree, the Norway. There’s a lovely smell off it and a lovely colour to it, and it’s actually a nicer shape than your non-shed Christmas tree. They don’t shed while growing, and will live happily inside in their pots for the duration of the Christmas period.”

While most customers just have one Christmas tree (a six-foot Nordmann Fir is the go-to), some buy a cut tree for inside and place a pot-grown one at the front door.

He sells rented and cut trees to multiple counties, so it’s all go at this time of year, but his shop in Mahon Industrial Park is always busiest around the weekend that falls nearest December 8, aka ‘culchie Christmas’. Bad weather that weekend can postpone people’s tree purchasing, he finds, and while the aim is to finish up on December 18 “to get a bit of family time”, sometimes he’s still selling trees on Christmas Eve.

This year, he’s launched a ‘Sponsor a Christmas Tree’ initiative, in which people can cover the cost of a cut or pot-grown tree, and a charity partner will ensure it goes to someone in need. For years, he’s had requests from folks who would “love to” gift a tree to someone less fortunate. In true Christmas spirit, now they can.

Christmastree.ie, Mahon Industrial Park, Cork

Frank Mackey, panto dame

Of all the Nanny Nellie-isms, ‘dirty-lookin’ eejit’ is a standout classic.

“It came from mum,” says panto dame Frank Mackey. “Now it’s a staple in the show. Kids say it when they go to school and teachers come in
sometimes saying, ‘Frank, we’re going to kill you’.”

It’s Aladdin this year and Mackey’s 11th time doing Cork’s legendary panto. The run is long and physically demanding, but Mackey prepares like a prize-fighter, hitting the gym three months in advance to get in peak shape. It’s a full-on commitment, but he loves it.

Aladdin at Cork Opera House Taken by Shane J Horan. Frank Mackey as Nanny Nellie in Aladdin at Cork Opera House

“I go in and play,” he says of performing. “I mean, who can say that?”

Mackey and co-writer Trevor Ryan began pitching their panto ideas to Cork Opera House’s CEO, Eibhlín Gleeson, in March, and from then on, it’s all go, with storyboards, casting auditions in Cork, Dublin, and London, costume and set-design meetings, and callbacks and rehearsals.

Modern audiences demand pace, tradition, and newness, which is a tough ask, but Mackey is part of a talented team that’s masterful at getting the mix right. “It’s about keeping the storyline factual, keeping the characters real, and then adding layers
of modern music and dance, and a fast pace; you move along quickly.”

Cork Opera House Panto Aladdin 2025 Picture: Gerard McCarthy

He loves playing Nanny Nellie, and audiences adore her. “They believe in this lady, this granny, this aunt, this lovable rogue” who can be “a little bit saucy”, but “she’s very humble and lovable, and I’ve always tried to encapsulate the realness of her”.

Once Mackey puts on “the makeup and the wig, it’s like a little switch goes on, and I become her”.

Panto remains “an intrinsic part of people’s Christmas”, Mackey says. “What people do now is they give gifts, a family ticket, or they say, ‘look, we’re going to bring you, we need this. It’s a tradition and we’re going to do it’.”

“They know they’re getting value for their money, he says. “You’re going to a show that gives you the spectacle of what you pay for in the West End, and I’m not being big-headed about that, but there is a level we’ve hit here.”

Panto also allows adults to reconnect with their inner kid. “They’re being silly and they’re believing in the magic, and they’re seeing the magic in the child’s eyes,” he says. “I love that.”

Some of the cast of Cork Opera House's upcoming Panto, Aladdin, pictured at The Mitchelstown Caves. Aladdin opens at Cork Opera House on Wednesday November 26 and runs until Sunday January 18, 2026.

He also loves the uplifting boost an evening at the panto can give people. Earlier this year, he lost “the light of my life”, his beloved mother. “You go out on

stage and think, ‘who else is out there going through pain tonight?’. If I can make someone laugh or escape for an hour or so, that’s worth it a million times to me.”

Frank Mackey stars in Aladdin at Cork Opera House, corkoperahouse.ie

Tom Durcan, spiced beef provider

“It’s bordering on reckless the amount of business we do at Christmas.” So says ‘accidental’ butcher Tom Durcan, 60, whose name is now synonymous with top-class spiced beef. Durcan’s butchering career began at 18 with a summer job “to keep me out of trouble”. He “fell in love with” the craft and a couple of years later, opened his own shop.

He’s now 40 years in business and about 30 of those have been spent in Cork’s English Market. At this time of year, “it’s full-on”, he says, and his 25-year-old twin sons are drafted in to help. He sells a staggering “seven tons” of spiced beef at Christmas, with the average customer buying a kilo-and-a-half.

Craft butcher Tom Durcan with his famous award winning Spice Beef at his stall in the English Market, Cork. - Picture: David Creedon

A centuries-old Cork tradition, spiced beef is served alongside the ham and the turkey, although Durcan says festive pints can mean “it tends to get murdered on Christmas Eve late at night”. Making it is labour-intensive; for Durcan, the prep begins in late September. “Good food takes time,” he says. “The magic is you start with good meat and you do it properly.” The good meat is the eye of the round, which is hung for 21 days. Then, the aged beef sits in a spice mix for a couple of months. Durcan’s blend is a secret, but he will disclose that pimento, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper are all in there.

Part of the annual stress comes from trying to estimate how much spiced beef (and every other meat) is going to be needed that year.

“If you let someone down for Christmas, you’ll never see them again,” the Douglas native says. “You’ve got to make sure everyone gets exactly what they want.” Durcan is not in the habit of letting people down. He recalls getting a call from a neighbour one Christmas morning, enquiring “is there any chance I’d have a spare turkey?”. Her dog had demolished theirs. Durcan had a spare bird “up his sleeve” and saved the day.

Craft butcher Tom Durcan at his stall in the English Market, Cork. - Picture: David Creedon

That wasn’t his only Christmas miracle. One year, just before Christmas, he got a call from Hong Kong. The woman on the line told him about her husband, a Cork man, who was in hospital, dying of cancer. He had a longing for some spiced beef. Could Durcan help? At such short notice, the postage cost was prohibitively expensive, “and then a customer of mine, Paul Cunneen, who comes in every year for three
turkeys, three hams, three spiced beef for families, came in and said, ‘I only need two this year because I’m going to Hong Kong for Christmas’. I said, ‘when are you going?’. He said, ‘tomorrow’. I said, ‘will you bring a bag over for me?’. He met this lady and gave her the spiced beef for Christmas, no delivery charge. Her husband got his spiced beef. I got a beautiful letter from the lady afterwards.”

Tom Durcan Meats, English Market, Princes St, Cork, tomdurcanmeats.ie

Donard McGreevy, toy shop owner

“Last year, it was the Hex Bots wall-crawler gecko,” says toy shop owner Donard McGreevy. “After The Late Late Toy Show, we sold out within an houronline.”

Always on the ball, the savvy Mayo man had further stock of 2024’s must-have in his Westport store, saving the day for anyone who’d missed out online.

It’s TikTok that largely dictates the trends these days, though, and virality on socials can send a toy from zero to hero overnight. Clutching at Straws, a drop-stick reaction game, had been sitting on shop shelves for a couple of weeks, but when it went viral on TikTok, McGreevy’s stock was cleared out in a day.

Don McGreevy in his Toy shop in Westport, Mayo McGreevy's Toys Direct. - Picture: Paul Mealey

The 36-year-old dad of two is the fourth generation to be involved in the family business, which began life as a grocers back in 1904, and has evolved over the years to incorporate a toy shop.

“My dad took over at 16 when his dad passed away. He gradually brought in more and more toys.”

Don, 72, still plays a role. “He loves seeing what’s going on, talking to people,” McGreevy says. “It’s a part of the day for him, it’s not work.”

The pandemic forced the business to adapt, and “with a shop full of stock and no way of selling it”, they pivoted to online, a smart move that ultimately helped them grow their business.

“We brought our local toy shop to the whole country,” says McGreevy. His wife Laura oversees the website, while he divides his time between the warehouse and the shop, where they have three full-time staff and five part-timers. At this time of year, it’s “all hands on deck”.

Planning for Christmas begins in mid-January, with a massive toy trade show in London, and toy-buying starts in earnest in early summer.

Lego, which McGreevy says is currently the number-one toy in the world, remains a perennial favourite, with its Formula One sets this year’s hot ticket. For Christmas 2025, interactive toys are big, he says, “especially the Little Live Pets”.

Toys can be a big expense for families, and while Santa always delivers, McGreevy has noticed the cost-of-living crisis kicking in. Last year, he saw a “big spike in sales” around the time of the double child benefit in November, a payment that wasn’t repeated this year. “Last year, they had that little bit of extra money to spend; they didn’t this year.”

The shop has always run a Christmas Club layaway option, and he’s noticed more people availing of it in the last couple of years. “It gives people the peace of mind that when they pick their toy, it’s put away.”

The shop on Bridge St is where the magic happens, and integral to the festive vibe are their winter wonderland-themed windows, complete with elves and a polar bear, while on the shop floor, a 30-year-old robotic singing Santa adds to the enchantment.

McGreevy loves his job, and especially loves Christmas, despite the extra stress it brings. “It’s the joy of Christmas really, isn’t it?”

McGreevy’s Toys Direct, Bridge St, Westport, Co Mayo, toysdirect.ie

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