How Ireland’s bred its own ‘mob’ of organic wallabies – Independent.ie

Michael Bermingham of The Market Butcher, Rathcoole, Co Dublin told FarmIreland how he noticed animals on Lambay island on flights from Dublin airport and was intrigued to discover what they were.

"There's two islands off Dublin Bay- Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island. I saw that Lambay Island had animals on it and I was intrigued because of the line of work that I'm in," said the butcher.

Michael said that he got in touch with the Baring family who own Lambay and he found out that wallabies were bred there. He arranged a visit to the island and secured a 10-year deal to cull three wallabies a month from Lambay.

There are 150 wallabies on Lambay island. Eight were brought from Dublin Zoo to Lambay in the 1950s. Michael explained that the "better than organic" conditions on the private island mean that wallabies bred there have a certain "wow" factor.

"It's free from everything on the mainland. It's unsheltered and unshedded and free from pesticides. It's better than organic. There's beef, lamb and venison on the island too and they all bring something wow and different."

While the uptake of wallaby in Ireland is quite low, Michael has managed to sell it to restaurants abroad and it is even available on some Aer Lingus transatlantic flights.

"We sent some over to Kitty Fisher's restaurant in London. Its ethos would be to embrace the weird and wonderful. The reaction was super because obviously there's a bigger population footfall of international people in London who would be used to eating the extreme," added Michael.

View post:

How Ireland's bred its own 'mob' of organic wallabies - Independent.ie