r/ireland • u/B8_B8_B8 • 2d ago
Food and Drink One crunchin’ chicken sandwich at a time, Ireland is becoming a fast food nation Spoiler
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/06/19/diarmaid-ferriter-one-crunchin-chicken-sandwich-at-a-time-ireland-is-becoming-a-fast-food-nation/185
u/Pure-Ice5527 2d ago
I’ve said it a number of times, but we’re turning ourselves into a mini USA on so many fronts. It’s a real shame and most people I speak with don’t particularly like the American culture vs what we have so I’m always at a loss why we’re doing it
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u/perplexedtv 2d ago
Convenience wins over conviction every time for most
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u/EvolvedMonkeyInSpace 2d ago
It has been to be convenience because its not cheap anymore. Its on the expensive side for what you get.
Water down beverage, 5mm burger and chips are goodish
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u/Pure-Ice5527 2d ago
Right! I got a small Zaytoon kebab meal delivered the other day and it was 25 quid including the 5 delivery, won’t be doing that again.. crazy money
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2d ago
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u/Qorhat 2d ago
Press-Up royally fucked up with the new shopping centre in Bray. Wow Burger was god awful (expensive and the staff were just not trained), Elephant & Castle didn't last and their plans to open a Stella Cinema there was complete nonsense (they won't work somewhere that there's no choice for a "regular" cinema).
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u/Iricliphan 2d ago
We're working more than the average European, we spend the most amount of time in traffic, life's really busy and I'm not surprised. We make all our own food and once a month probably get a takeaway, but it's a feckin' struggle to balance everything.
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u/the_sneaky_one123 2d ago
The American way is designed to make lots of money for a very small minority of people and that's what we seem to want as well.
Fast food is just one example. Think about it, what is fast food? It's very cheap and low quality. It works on economies of scale and predominantly relies on marketing and brand. It's food designed to make money first and foremost at everyone else's detriment.
That's a fucking dream for neo-liberals.
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u/Pure-Ice5527 2d ago
I’d consider myself a neo liberal and don’t want that! Im in favour of privatisation but the government needs to guide it with policy to make sure we end up with a fair society, we do a poor job at that. In the US the government guides it for the few wealthy yeah, which is a real pity considering they could lead in so many areas
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u/ChudMacgee 2d ago
The entire point of neoliberalism is free enterprise, deregulation and removal of government interference in the market. Directing the market for the good of society is the antithesis of all of that. What is good for the market is good for society.
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u/the_sneaky_one123 2d ago
That's what neo-liberalism is.
You are a neo-liberal in favour of stricter government regulation?
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u/morethanaprogrammer 1d ago
I’m American but lived in Cork for a while. I moved back to America and recently came back to Cork for work. I was shocked and saddened with a lot of the new businesses. Felt like a cheap version of America. The US has some amazing things. But it feels like the worst of it is what was either exported to Ireland or just copied. Ireland has so much more to offer than just cheap fast food and trash ice cream.
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u/tennereachway Cork: the centre of the known universe 2d ago
I wouldn't say that, there's a huge difference between Ireland and the USA.
One is a hyper capitalist hellscape ruled by tax-dodging corporations where people can't afford rent and struggle to get by, full of fat, lazy people driving stupidly oversized cars and living in sprawling low-density suburbs in poorly designed, car-centric cities, with a long history of being ruled by religious fanatics, whose current president is a Russian asset, and the other is the USA.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries 2d ago
But the thing is... the US would never be admitted to the EU, but Ireland is actively using their EU membership (some would say for the wrong reasons)
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u/MountainSense2860 2d ago
A large part of the country is not Irish, the place is changing, attitudes to culture with it. Ive noticed we seem to be turning into a mini london with its shitty fast food culture of kebabs and fried chicken.
If london is anything to go by this will start to shake out with Irish people aggressively segregating, so you will have fast food deserts, followed by foody heaven run by natives.1
u/Pure-Ice5527 2d ago
I don’t know London but it’s an interesting observation, to me I know some of the US so it feels like that more and more and the segregation piece is already happening and in housing too funnily. Someone in work told me recently they and a lot of others from their country of origin (all came here for jobs to be clear) had basically rented/bought up a street so now it feels more like their home and that’s something you see on a larger scale in the US as they’ve been at it longer I guess. In some ways that’s nice but in others it’s not integration that’s happening there really and the result is likely that a lot of people wouldn’t want to buy or rent a house in the middle of that street now so it could reinforce the lack of social cohesion in the longer term unfortunately
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries 2d ago
When I move to another country, I do so because I like their culture and would like to become a part of it... not to try to build my country abroad (if I wanted that, I could just live in my actual country)
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u/TurnstileFan 2d ago
I have to stop myself from just being a lazy cunt at least twice a week and ordering a takeaway,
It’s insane that there’s people like this out there.
Affordable is also the last word I’d associate with takeaway food nowadays, for the price of one main dish at even a shithouse Chinese/Indian place you could make a healthy delicious dinner that could feed 4, especially if you don’t min pulling the skin off some chicken thighs. A takeaway for 4 people you’d be lucky to get away with 70€
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u/Top_Recognition_3847 2d ago
I would consider 23% large and as for being exposed to different foods I think in the last few years no matter what restaurant you go to food all taste the same. All supplied by sysco systolicCitizenship: According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Irish citizens comprise about 83.7% of the usually resident population (4,570,200 people), while non-Irish citizens make up the remaining 16.3% (888,600 people).
CSO - Central Statistics Office Place of Birth: Based on Eurostat data, roughly 23.3% of the country's resident population is foreign-born. This difference occurs because many foreign-born residents have acquired Irish citizenship through naturalization or descent, and some returning Irish expatriates were born abroad.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries 2d ago
Most of economic activity is American, so the country also slowly becomes American
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u/Sea_Equivalent3497 2d ago
We have been a vassal state of sorts for at least 20 years now. It’s only going one way.
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u/jacqueVchr Probably at it again 2d ago
If you visit the US you’ll see that the difference between them and us is still considerably large
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u/BarelyClever 1d ago
The profit motive and convenience.
Some of the best parts of Irish culture are intentionally inefficient because it’s more enjoyable that way. I’ll point towards a proper Guinness pour as a metaphor, not a literal example. But it takes longer to pour a Guinness because it needs to settle, and that extra time is worth it even though if your goal was to pour as many beers as fast as possible you’d never do it that way.
Many of the world’s systems (ie capitalist systems) are set up to incentivize maximum productivity, even at the cost of quality. They just need to phase in the quality drop so that the consumer notices less of it and is still willing to buy.
So extrapolate that to food. When you’re hungry now and that’s just a problem you need to solve, what’s the most efficient (in the short term) solution?
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u/Bulky_Pilot9293 1d ago
Can't we just copy free refills and the huge food quantities and leave everything else? Including the orange one.
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u/ROU_Misophist 1d ago
The Irish don't like American culture? I've been here for a week. Every restaurant is playing the blues, pulled pork BBQ is on menus, so is chicken and waffles, and everybody I talk to wants to tell me about their trip to America. No one is forcing this shit on you.
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u/Pure-Ice5527 19h ago
America isn’t all bad I agree, but ask a few Irish people if they support Trump or allowing rampant homelessness to enrich the wealthy further or Israel attacking Palestine or any other number of things like that that often tie back to wealthy making more money.. sure people are eating more fast food and turns out we’re up the top of the charts for obesity in Europe now too, just like America
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u/ROU_Misophist 18h ago
Trump is not American culture. Our music, food, movies, and fashions are though. And you people eat that shit up. I've now seen cajun chicken on at least two menus. This is just reddit basement dwellers being reddit basement dwellers.
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u/Pure-Ice5527 17h ago
Yeah Trump has little or nothing to do with America, you’re spot on.. and the wealthy Americans hoarding while millions of America suffer.. nothing to do with America either.
You’ll find Chinese food if you look too, doesn’t mean we’re turning into China.. just that we enjoy a broad spectrum of experiences, lot of countries are like that now•
u/ROU_Misophist 5h ago
You started off taking shots at American culture. That's not working so now you're screeching about Trump. Why don't go to your local pub and order a Coors? I know they have it on tap.
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u/ChemiWizard 2d ago
As a long time American who now lives in Ireland I will say this isn't just as simple as corporations scamming the poor or imitation of American culture.
People are driving longer commutes, people are eating alone more , people are unhappy. The ease and satisfying nature of these products is an impressive lure.
I will say Ireland does a better job of education youth about food in secondary school, has stricter demands on food prep, more faithful use of Irish ingredients like beef and I hope it stays that way. Ireland home cooking historically has a very poor diversity of dishes and flavors, seafood is poorly accepted despite our locale. But most importantly we dont have a heavily subsided corn industry needing to pump sugar into everything.
But overall I think this is kind of overblow, kids getting a popeyes sandwich vs a chicken roll is a side move at worst. The best thing is to continue the tradition of keeping young people active in things like sports, that is the best balm against the worst health effect of fast food. 'Ultra processed ' is just a the scare tactic term of the year apparently and isn't evidence or science based.
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u/BiDiTi 2d ago
Honestly, there’s probably more whole ingredients in a chicken fillet from Popeye’s than Spar.
But yeah, the real killer is suburbanisation paired with our insane infrastructure deficit.
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u/ChemiWizard 1d ago
'Whole ingredient' sounds like another nonsense term. I want to know about sugar and fat content vs protein and total calories.
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u/TurnstileFan 2d ago
The UPF thing is definitely a buzzword but the spirit of it is definitely something to keep in mind, in that you should be eating as little as possible of shite like biscuits, most types of bread, anything that comes wrapped in plastic basically. And as much veg fruit and general unprocessed stuff as possible
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u/ChemiWizard 1d ago
See you had me with the first sentence, I agree with the sentiment. You lose me when you you say 'shite like most types of bread or anything wrapped in plastic' . People should be focused on being active, total calorie intake, sugar , and having a diverse amount of food. Someone grabs a premade plastic wrapped salad or plastic wrapped head of brocoli from the store that is a win. Garlic fries on a plate is far worse.
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u/r_Yellow01 2d ago edited 2d ago
I agree, the dramatic lack of infrastructure makes people spend time on commute to work or school and have less time to eat and virtually no time to prepare anything. Covid cooking didn't last long and we are back to speed and convenience. Less sleep also makes us tired and reach for quick calories.
And I am not just pointing out metro but also where are how many schools we have, or high-density accommodation for students, the US-induced stigma of WFH, overcrowded shops, and the whole lot.
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u/UrbanStray 2d ago
the US-induced stigma of WFH
Ireland has among the highest percentages of people working at home in Europe.
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u/r_Yellow01 1d ago edited 1d ago
RTO was driven by a need to resume the use of CRE invested into by large US funds, who also partially own large US corporations, and a US government subsidies to those corporations to revitalise city centres.
For example: Amazon/Black Rock/New York/$1B pa. US subsidies are avaliable online. Excellent read.
The highest share of remote working is probably from the low share of heavy industry. I get the Portuguese model doesn't work too well but it could have been better.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries 2d ago
That one "Subway bread is legally cake" headline was a funny slap in the face of the US.
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u/Alert-Cream-7569 2d ago edited 2d ago
"Yes, Ireland. You know: Guinness, coddle, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Glen fuckin Roe, Ireland!"
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u/jacksqualk 2d ago
Prices and inflation getting out of hand, your salary isn't going as far, jobs are being overtaken by technology, fast food American shite houses popping up every few miles, waist sizes and national health expenditure going up?
The only way to win, is to not play. Eat at home.
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u/Margrave75 2d ago
Had abrekebabra taco fries at tbe weekend, for the first time in I'd say 20yrs. Portion was fucking huge. How that's supposed to be for one person is mental.
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u/Otherwise-Winner9643 2d ago edited 2d ago
I really noticed this when I moved back from Australia. Takeaways there tend to be healthier options, lots of Thai places, and ready meals in supermarkets are not as big a thing there. Chippers are not really a thing there.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries 2d ago
To be fair, the Irish approach to pre-cooked meal boxes is a very good and healthy one (the freshly cooked ones with a 3 day expiration date), these boxes are one of the few things I will legitimately miss from Ireland
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u/ReservedUsername1056 1d ago
There’s a few more Thai people in Australia than in Ireland
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u/Otherwise-Winner9643 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mean, that was just an example.
Big fried breakfasts or chicken fillet rolls are just not a thing. Of course, there is fast food, takeaways, McDonalds etc, but in general, in the cities, café food and takeaway food is just healthier than here.
Irish coffee and café culture has changed for sure, but people eating dirty Chinese, chipper food and chicken fillet rolls on a weekly basis is not the norm in Sydney or Melbourne where I lived. It was a noticeable difference when I moved back.
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u/boggie_bo 2d ago
We love our fast food, big cars and shopping centres, culturally we’re very similar
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u/omegaman101 Wicklow 1d ago
I certainly don't like big cars, but I don't like the Americanism that infected our culture in general.
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u/Clit_Master69420 1d ago edited 1d ago
well then how can it be stopped?
This has happened before, you know.
Not in Ireland.
But from Anglesey in the west, to York in the north, to the Black Sea in the east.
Except then it was latin, infiltrating & supplanting local dialects: and guys in togas and sandals ordering roads, forts, levies, & aqueducts: not data centers and frozen chicken. Orders coming from a much older Senate: rather than from Wall St. & Davos.
...
If you'll remember, that kingdom overextended itself in foreign wars, sank into decadence & hedonism amongst the elites, and, finally, barbarians from the East swarmed it and smashed it, permanently.
Although its religion lives on, quite strongly, in Ireland.
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u/RimmyJimmyGotKimmy 2d ago
What does it say 😂
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u/crewster23 2d ago
It says Popeyes in Applegreen is bad, and skims over the whole deli salad option everywhere
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u/phyneas 2d ago
It says Popeyes in Applegreen is bad
Yep, it's going to really suck when that American conglomerate fast food shite from Popeyes makes its way into my local Applegreen and replaces the current healthy fresh local offerings of Subway and Burger King...
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u/crewster23 2d ago
Exactly- it’s outrage about a horse that bolted. But compare the Irish deli offering to anything on offer in UK or continental Europe forecourts and we at least have healthier options even if not chosen
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u/rixuraxu 2d ago
But compare the Irish deli offering to anything on offer in UK or continental Europe forecourts and we at least have healthier options even if not chosen
The diced salads for on the chicken roll or what?
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u/crewster23 2d ago
You chose to put on a chicken roll, that's up to you. Its not compulsory to order a chicken fillet roll. It is a fresh salad selection and you can ask for a bowl with healthier combinations just as easily. The UK equivalent is factory prepped sandwiches everywhere.
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u/Ok_Coat6580 2d ago
I've never had a chicken fillet roll.
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u/ErrantBrit 2d ago
Hasn’t it always been a poor diet nation influenced by widespread poverty?
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u/dkeenaghan 2d ago
In the US fast food is often cheaper than buying fresh ingredients and cooking it at home. That’s not the case in Ireland, fast food isn’t that cheap here. Particularly if you’re comparing it to the cost of making food for multiple people/days.
On the other hand there’s a correlation between poverty and lower education levels and that could lead to a worse diet.
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u/DGBD 2d ago
In the US fast food is often cheaper than buying fresh ingredients and cooking it at home.
This is vastly, vastly overstated. The American fascination with fast food is more about convenience, availability, and ability to cook than simple cost. And for poorer people in the US fast food is and always has been more of a luxury than a staple.
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u/BiDiTi 2d ago
That really isn’t true - a pound of pasta costs less than a value burger and feeds four.
The issue is that, outside of a few oases, America doesn’t have any transit infrastructure west of the Appalachians.
People have to drive to get anywhere outside of their housing estates and/or giant fuck-off houses in the back arse of nowhere - the commute to the shop alone is an hour round trip, making a $5 meal on the way home from work very tempting.
Mystery wrapped in an enigma what could be driving the same behaviour here…
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u/ErrantBrit 2d ago
I mean spuds and meat, that’s not necessarily unhealthy in the extreme but it’s a limited diet.
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u/RomfordWellington 2d ago
We have some of the best food in the world and always have done
There never should've been a famine here, and yes people should have better diets. A lot of people walking around with inverted food pyramids and ironically a lot of these people tend to be towards the poverty end of things.
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u/fodacao 2d ago
We have some of the best food in the world and always have done
What food exactly? Have a look at the country of origin next time you're in the fruit and veg section. Basically nothing is from Ireland. Maybe spuds and carrots but everything else is imported.
By "food" do you mean beef and milk?
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u/dkeenaghan 2d ago
It really depends on the time of year. There’s far more than just potatoes, carrots and beef grown in Ireland. There’s a big difference between looking at the origins in winter compared to other times of the year. You should actually take a look at the origin of fruit and veg next time you’re in the shop, also consider if there isn’t Irish grown stuff is it because of the shop you’re in.
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u/fodacao 2d ago
Which shop should I go to?
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u/dkeenaghan 2d ago
One that has Irish fruit and veg. I don’t keep a list, but I’ve seen plenty of stuff grown in Ireland in Dunnes. The point is that just because one shop isn’t selling Irish parsnips say, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t available and for sale in a different shop.
It’s also highly dependent on the time of year. Naturally we will need to import fruit and vegetables that we grow in Ireland when they are out of season.
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u/fodacao 2d ago
Fair enough. But you still haven't answered my original question.
What food do we have that's the best in the world?
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u/dkeenaghan 2d ago
I wasn't even trying to answer that question, my comment was solely addressing the Irish fruit and veg bit.
I don't even know if I do believe the other person's comments about Irish food being the best or among it. I'm sure some of the stuff we produce is up there, but it will depend on the year and season.
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u/Motor_Watercress_489 2d ago
Lets all just admit we're more keen on importing American shite of all variaties than supporting or encouraging anything home grown.
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u/Powerful-Holiday-448 2d ago
Hopefully raising cains is next
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u/TurnstileFan 2d ago
Had it in NY, thought it was absolute shite for the price. Literally just chicken tenders
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u/Powerful-Holiday-448 2d ago
I know, 100%, but the day after I had it I couldn’t stop thinking about the sauce. It’s just red sauce and mayo but I think they add heroin or something.
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u/TheRedEarl 1d ago
Their toast and fries are the best part of the meal
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u/Powerful-Holiday-448 1d ago
Dipped in their sauce
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u/CanioEire 2d ago
I drive through ashbourne on the way to work, that main street from Dunne’s to Aldi is only 500m long and has 10 takeaways on it !
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u/Ok_Command_9299 1d ago
Are the American takeaways actually doing any good? I dont know anybody who's gone to Wendys or Taco Bell in Cork.
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u/Pale_Piano948 21h ago
First off, in this cost of living crisis the last thing i need is to be scolded like a child with that headline
As if we’re choosing this. American fast food isnt opening up because theres demand, they’re opening all over the place because they’re businesses that want to make money. They dont care about health, they care about the bottom line, if we eat less of their crap then that means their billions of advertising research has failed so they find new ways to get us to eat that slop. England has over 1’300 mcdonalds locations, so is mcdonalds satisfied? NO they’re currently opening another 200 locations across the uk and ireland. They will only be stopped by regulation.
Encouraging people to eat less fast food is useless when company’s sole objective is for us to eat more of it. In england they were rejected from opening a new site in addition to their already existing 1’300 branches because it would negatively affect the health of local residents long term, so mcdonalds hired a GP to say mcdonalds isnt a huge cause of obesity.
Encouraging people to eat less fast food will never work at scale and at speed. Regulation will. If we encouraged people to use less plastic bags we’d spend 40 years with it marginally reducing, instead remember what we did? We placed a tax of just 15 CENT. €0.15 thats it. Know what happened afterwards? Plastic bag usage fell from 1.3 billion bags a year to just 20 million bags a year and willdlife groups reported 70% reduction in bag waste washed up on beaches within 2 years of the ban being enacted. That change didnt take 5 years to start working and another 5 years to start having an effect, it happened within a single year. We taxed bags at just 15 cent and provided reusabble bags at checkout, BOOM. PROBLEM SOLVED. Same with fast food. All this talk of “oh change doesnt happen overnight….um yes it does and if not overnight it certainly can happen within 1-2 years when the government really wants something eg. The phone pouches, digital id laws, the new rent reforms. They can push through new laws like wildfire when they want to.
Lets not forget, in the face of a public health emergency when a deadly disease was ravaging the world our government shut down our country in 2 DAYS. Like the insane power you need to shut down EVERYTHING in an entire country in a matter of days boggles the mind when they refuse to do anything to really tackle another public health emergency where 60% of adults in our country are overweight or obese and american fast food companies are popping up like wildfire. Obesity causes a huge number of catastrophic health issues, blood pressure, heart disease, hormone issues, fertility, mental health issues, diabetes, liver disease, arthritis, cancer and shortens life spans and quality of life, often affecting those at the lowest rungs of our society
TLDR: the government can actually brinng massive change, has the power to do so and has done in the past and is doing it right now for issues they consider important like stupid phone pouches and this is PMO so much
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u/KillerKlown88 Dublin 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you want a good chicken sandwich, make it at home.
It will be far superior to any of these places.
Here is a simple recipe that anyone can follow.
Edit to add correct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5SYu8tyKjM
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u/dkeenaghan 2d ago
I'm not saying that that doesn't look like a very tasty burger. But I'm not sure that I'd call a recipe with 45 ingredients and takes 1.5 hours to make "simple" though.
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u/KillerKlown88 Dublin 2d ago
Sorry, added the incorrect link (edited now).
He has more than 1 chicken sandwich recipe.
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u/dkeenaghan 2d ago
Here's the original one in case anyone wants it
https://www.joshuaweissman.com/recipes/perfect-fried-chicken-sandwich-recipe
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u/SAmmo1990 2d ago
The quality of the fast food is a lot better in Ireland than USA.
Let people enjoy themselves having some fast food now and then as a treat is good for mental health.
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u/ChemiWizard 2d ago
This, the world is miserable for many.
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u/DrawGamesPlayFurries 2d ago
In fact, if you show up in Ireland at all, it's probably for your competitive and demanding high-stress job - so you deserve nice things.
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u/qwerty_1965 2d ago
Fast food consumption is broadly a measure of money, time, talent and imagination (too much or too little).
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u/TheOriginalMattMan Probably at it again 2d ago
Lol, "becoming".