Pat O'Doherty's inspiring story of business and humanity

He is a master butcher, a great community man and one who has respect for a rich Irish heritage.

He is also a man with a vision of excellence, while sticking to traditional values.

There are a few people that you genuinely feel better for having been in their company.

It is hard to describe, but some people have an aura that tells you that they are kind, genuine, sincere, trustworthy and truly inspiring.

But when that person is also very successful in business you just know that you were in the company of an exceptional man.

Pat O'Doherty. © - Picture by John McVitty - 07771987378 - ©

For business and humanity seldom mix in a cut-throat world where it is all about the bottom line, and often about being the top dog and often about power.

And that’s why Pat O’Doherty, master butcher from Belmore Street Enniskillen is such a fascinating character.

He is passionate, charismatic, caring, driven but always looking at things in a holistic way as befits his background as an environmental scientist.

There is an old Gaelic saying called “ar scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine” which roughly means that we live in each other’s shadow and are inter dependent.

And that is how the eloquent 62-year-old has always seen things.

He cares about the planet and even more about people as evidenced by his voluntary work in a hospice in Bombay in the late 1980s.

And he organised a number of young people to do voluntary work in that period as well as giving some inspiring talks to schools in Fermanagh.

But he also cares about the animals he slaughters which might sound a bit contradictory.

Pat has been internationally recognised for the quality of his burgers, his famous Fermanagh black bacon that inspired him to buy an island and populate it with pigs.

He has appeared on BBC’s Country File and RTE’s Ear To The Ground and featured in several good food programmes but there is nothing precious about the son of James O’Doherty.

Pat is grounded, gracious and always uses one of the most important phrases ever coined and it is called “we”.

But he is also a keen hand glider, played GAA county minor for Fermanagh in 1978/79 and is a very proud Enniskillen Gaels man with a deep respect for people like the legendary Jim Dooris who did so much for the youth all through the 1970s.

And the Enniskillen he grew up in was a much smaller closer knit community where small businesses were located in the same street and depended on each other.

His father, James a Tyrone native came to O'Doherty's current premises in 1957 and Pat’s sister Nuala and son Fintan still work in the family business.

He has a deep love for his community, is exceptionally proud to come from Enniskillen and Fermanagh and always looks for the positive in people.

And Pat was also an early mentor to the great chef Neven Maguire who came to him as a student in the early 1990s.

When asked about his people skills, he immediately references his parents who reared their family to be hard working, be respectful, find something that suits you, it might take a while and then when you do, anything is possible if you believe and have the drive and have confidence in people.

Patrick O'Doherty, High Sheriff of Co.Fermanagh, accompained by Lord Brookeborough, as he reads out The Accession Proclamatioin of King Charles III, in Enniskillen Town Centre.

In more recent times Pat had was diagnosed with cancer in late 2021 and early 2022 and went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy but has come out the other side and is now planning to go back to work again in the slums of Bombay later this year.

He was born in 1961 in Belmore Street and his grandfather James O’Doherty came from Dressock outside Drumquin.

His father James O’Doherty worked as a butcher in Ederney back in the 1940s with a famous butcher called Pat Gallagher who covered from Ederney to Belleek.

Pat was born in the shop in Belmore and saw quite a lot as the Civil Rights Movement grew in momentum and the “evolution of modern- day Ireland was played out in front of our door”.

Community is very important to Pat who did a lot of acting with the Lakeland Players for five years in the 1980s with Eileen Fitzpatrick and Vincey Donegan, Mickey Carney, Richard Hoad, and the Reid brothers.

Pat grew up in one of the oldest butcher shops in Northern Ireland and started in earnest in the family business in the mid 1980s.

“Butchering is a very tough physical business but there are some great people in the food industry.

“You get a great insight into meeting with people.

Pat is the eldest boy in a family of Mary, Frances, Pat, Ignatius, Nuala, Eamon and Yvonne.

“It was the classic Irish family”.

One of his earliest achievements was successfully researching ancient Fermanagh bacon.

He went around old farmers in Fermanagh at night to find out the secret of making bacon.

That took two years and he out found that in the 1940s and 1950s there were pigs in all farms. They were salted, as there were no fridges.

“Every farmer did it differently and you would have an odd farmer with a shaky hand and the bacon came out very salty which of course was very good for the pubs in Fermanagh.

"In 1999 Fermanagh Black Bacon was born. Every supermarket in Ireland wanted the bacon bit we wanted to keep it small and something you could control. We were happy to work 24/6 but we wanted the seventh day off”.

Pat then decided to create a place where he could give something back to the pigs.

"He went and bought an island in Lough Erne to release pigs on that island to see how they could live in their natural environment.

“So we were fortunate in 2005 an island called Inish Corkish came up for sale which is between Lisnaskea and the Share Centre. This island was inhabited by John Reihill, a great local hero and a historian and we bought 90 acres off him nine miles long and a half mile wide”.

So the next logical thing for Pat to do was to buy a boat to visit his pigs.

“The idea for the pigs on the island is we want them to live in harmony with other animals and we also have wild deer on the island, badgers, foxes and a whole range of animals. The integrity of the island has to be maintained so we take the pigs off the island from the end of November to March as there is no growth in that period."

He describes the island as a "magical place".

"I have a Morris boat named after a man from Enniskillen. The pigs live naturally under the bushes and about two years ago we created these pig arcs but they paid no heed to them. When I leave the island of a mild autumn evening I look back at the pigs and you see a view that was the same as 400 years ago.

“And you say to yourself I might not be making any money but I feel happy”

Pat’s son Fintan, who has taken over the business since his illness and his sister while his wife is Eilish, another Tyrone native, who is a music teacher. He has another son, James and three daughters, Nuala Maria and Ellen.

Pat O'Doherty, asks Prince Charles to smell his smoked bacon during his visit to Lisnaskea. © - Picture by John McVitty - 07771987378 - ©

But Pat O’Doherty is not just defined by his bacon.

Even more significantly he has a strong ethical, social conscience that saw him go out to India in the mid 1980s.

“What drove me very much in the mid 1980s was to go out and work in the Third World.

“In those years there were quite a lot of humanitarian crises around the world and you could not help but be aware of it.

“It was something that I had to get out of my system. I decided I would contact a few of these Third World organisations but none of them would take me on board so I jumped on a plane and landed in Bombay which is now Mumbai.

“By the time I got there I was shaking, and it certainly was a big change from Fermanagh and there were people dying all around you.

It was a period that profoundly influenced his perspective on life.

"The first person I met in the hospital there was a man from Dublin, and I had no experience, and I worked a full day," recalls Pat, reflecting on the humble beginnings of his journey. His foray into the world of hospice care marked the initiation of a transformative experience that spanned several years. "The ethos of that place was that you went out into the streets and you picked up people who were dying and you brought them into this place where they could die with dignity."

Pat's voice carries a tone of solemnity as he recounts the ethos of the hospice, "I worked there for a month the first year, and I went back out there the following year, and I worked again out in the same place. Then you realize how lucky we are here," he adds, highlighting the stark contrast between the circumstances he witnessed and the relative abundance of life in his hometown.

"That has driven me in a sense, and the vast majority of the people in the world do not have the luxury we have here, of the society we have, plus the food and the basics in life," he continues. This realisation became a driving force in Pat's life, fostering a profound appreciation for the simple yet invaluable aspects of life often taken for granted.

Recalling a poignant encounter, Pat shares, "I remember meeting a patient who had been lying on his back for a long time, and the cartilage at the back of his knee had solidified because of the heat, and he could not stand up." The challenges faced by those he sought to help were immense, but so was their resilience. "Eventually, we just got him to stand up, and the day before I left, this apparatus arrived like a walking aid."

"He had only one arm, and he stood up with the aid of this piece of equipment and walked about six steps. And he looked up into my eyes, and the sweat was running down his face, and the vision of joy in his face, I will never forget."

"That experience inspired me, and the following year I went out for six months," Pat reveals.

"I worked in the hospice; they were poor people who were left out on the streets to die, and they suffered from malnutrition quite often," he states, revealing the grim reality he faced. The conditions were far from ideal, but Pat's dedication transcended the challenges.

"One of the jobs was to open the boxes from aid agencies, and if the drugs were five years out of date, you threw them out, so the standards were not great, to say the least, but that is what we worked with."

Living beside the hospice, Pat immersed himself in the lives of those he sought to assist. The three different years he spent there left an indelible mark on his heart, shaping the compassionate figure we know today. When he came back from India he decided to go around schools and organise a group of young people to go out and work in the Third World.

One of Pat’s recruits was Paddy McMahon who did some Trojan work for the poor in India for several years.

“They all fund raised locally and they went out to work in the same hospice.

“Another woman called Florence Creighton from Newtownbutler also went out and she is really inspirational.

“She flew over along with the young people to Bombay”.

Pat was meanwhile spreading the gospel in schools.

“After being out in India and after seeing some of the things I have seen you don’t have any inhibitions any more.

“You think a bit differently and there are different, deeper things that drive you”.

That experience can become very absorbing and “you are a different person and are very energized”.

150 people went to India under Pat’s tutelage and they brought £250,000 in donations to that hospice from Fermanagh.

“That was phenomenal and is shows what the energy and enthusiasm of youth can do.

“I always say to young people, you are great, believe in yourself.

“We are in a changing world of instant global communications and I am a dinosaur.

“It is all about communication and a lot of things that can put young people down.

“But the reality is that if you believe in yourself, you will find out what you are good and if you get the support from your family and if you are strong enough to go and do what you should be doing, then go for it.

“Not every direction will be right but believe in yourself and in what you do.

And Pat admits to being “blown away” on the Sunday morning he woke up and saw the beatification of Mother Teresa on television six years ago.

“I had a lump in my throat, and some of my group members met her when they were out in India.

“I was speechless when it was happening and it was also the recognition of all those volunteers who had worked out there selflessly for so many years.

“And I was very proud of all the young people who went out there.

‘There was one young lad called Shay Palmer from Enniskillen who went out and he told me an interesting story.

“The young people went out and learned so much about deprivation and about themselves and for us to appreciate what they have here.

“One of the patients he was looking after in the hospice had passed away and the man was Catholic so they asked 17-year-old Shay if he would do the burial.

“They wrapped up the body and walked out on to the street with the corpse and waited on a bus and they got on the bus.

‘The bus stopped at the graveyard and Shay had to read the words over the man as he was laid to rest so that was something really tough for a 17-year-old to take on board.

“But there was joyful things as well as India is very beautiful and they learned so many happy things as well”.

It certainly changed Pat O’Doherty.

“I looked at life differently and in a sense I suppose I am not as competitive as I could be and I feel you have to look at life in a different way.

“My business is all about people, the community is all about people and it was great to meet so many fine people.

“We did some talks and shows right around Ireland and so many fine young people went to work in the Third World and hopefully were enriched in the really important things”.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Pat was diagnosed with cancer but, fortunately, has come through it. For a fit man, it was a shock to his system, but it was one he faced with honesty and courage and after a good recovery he is determined to go back to work in the slums of Bombay later this year.

“I had a lump on the top of my leg, and it was later diagnosed as cancer, and I needed chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the groin.

“They talk so much about the NHS, but I can only say good about and it was a fast turnaround and now my son Fintan has taken over the operation of the business and he has a great team of young people to run the business.

“I am clawing my way back to health again and am back out doing a Park Run on Saturday and the great news for me that was announced last week and the Enniskillen 10k is coming up.

“We have installed solar power out on the island with the pigs and we are totally off grid and to make it a destination for people to come to and I walk around the island to improve my fitness.”

But Pat is very optimistic about Enniskillen and its future and feels there is a great energy in the town.

“It’s a fantastic new world and there are some great young people out there.

“Enniskilen has turned the corner in retail. A few years ago every other shop on the Main Street in Enniskillen, was empty but thankfully that is no longer the case.

“There are green shoots out there all right.”

His next mission is to work with the sick and the dying Bombay as he did in the 1980s and he is getting fit for that challenge.

“I am thinking of going back out later this year.

And he ends our chat with a quote from a US writer on a book about Mother Teresa who also worked in the slums of India.

“The title of the book is called ‘To Love And Be Loved’ and was written by Jim Towey.

“The quote is a Mindfulness one and it is a prayer:

'Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has yet to come. We have only today. Let us begin'.”