T ravellers on Irish motorways are not blessed with good culinary options. If they have not made their own meal, they will often have to resort to the “plaza” or garage option of fast food junk. Seamus Stapleton, managing director of Applegreen’s Republic of Ireland business, reacted to the recent announcement of Applegreen’s new partnership with the US chicken fast food giant Popeyes : “We are delighted to add Popeyes to our growing portfolio of high-quality brands in the Irish market.” Even more enthusiastic is Tom Byng, Popeye’s UK and Ireland chief development officer: “The partnership will allow us to reach more consumers on the move and marks an exciting milestone in our journey to bring our much-loved shatter crunchin’ chicken to Irish customers.”
Popeyes was established by Al Copeland in 1972 in a New Orleans suburb; its spicy chicken and Cajun-style offerings distinguished it from its competitors, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Church’s Chicken. Copeland, who grew up in poverty, had started the previous year with a fried chicken stand carrying the slogan “So fast you get your chicken before you get your change.” Popeyes began contracting franchises in 1976; by the end of the 1980s Copeland owned or franchised more than 800 of the restaurants. Today, Popeyes has more than 5,000 restaurants in 50 countries worldwide, with annual sales of $8 billion. The first Irish outlet was opened in Blanchardstown this month. Another is to open imminently at the Liffey Valley shopping centre.
Irish consumers are in for the treat of “The Spicy Deluxe superstack sandwich”, or “The Big Tender Sharer with Fries, Sides, Dip and drink, which is “from 3,137 calories”. Or how about the “10 Garlic Parmesan Boneless”? Here is the nutritional information per serving of that delight: energy: 790.1 kcal, fats: 56.6g, saturated fatty acids: 7.7g, carbohydrates: 20.1g, fibre: 1.5g, sugar: 6.6g, protein: 49.4g and salt: 4.7g. The market for fast food chicken in Ireland is also indicated by the presence of other American creations including Wingstop, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Slim Chickens.
[ How the American fast-food franchise took Ireland by storm Opens in new window ]
There was considerable focus at the beginning of this century on fast food and its contribution to the obesity epidemic, reflected in the popularity of Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation (2000) and Greg Critser’s Fat Land (2003). In 2007 a US senator – future president Barack Obama – was vocal about the need for targeted food programmes for minority communities in the US “to make sure they’ve got sound nutrition, have access to fruits and vegetables and not just Popeyes”.
But appetites have hardly dulled. Earlier this year, the Irish arm of McDonald’s announced it was planning to spend €150 million on opening 25 new restaurants over the next five years. In 2024, endocrinologist Donal O’Shea, the HSE’s clinical lead for obesity, expressed anger at “the positioning of Ronald McDonald House at the entrance to the new children’s hospital ... the first thing you would see when you arrive, and the last thing you see when you leave the children’s hospital is brand management for McDonald’s ... We have an obesity epidemic that is driven by ultra-processed foods and this is advertising.”
[ Prof Donal O’ Shea: ‘The positioning of Ronald McDonald House at the entrance to the new children’s hospital makes me angry’ Opens in new window ]
The Irish voluntary code on broadcast advertising of high fat, salt and sugar food products covers only paid advertising on children’s programming up to 6pm. Junk food advertisements pervade social media heavily used by children. A new mandatory code in the UK, introduced in January, bans paid television advertising of junk foods up to 9pm and all online promotions of unhealthy foods to children.
The Irish Heart Foundation has recently been advocating a ban on online junk food advertising, given that one in five Irish primary schoolchildren is overweight or obese: “Online junk food marketing directed at children is rampant in Ireland. It is fuelling the obesity crisis that is causing immeasurable damage to their health. The State’s own research says that 85,000 of this generation of children on the island of Ireland will die prematurely as a result.”
Last month, Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue wrote that “it is this Government’s goal – and mine as Minister for Sport – to make Ireland the fittest nation in Europe by 2040”. He made no reference to food and nutrition in making this declaration, while hailing a record number of Irish people taking part in weekly sport. This is paralleled with the warnings of the Brazilian nutritionist and public health expert Carlos Monteiro, who coined the description ultra processed food (UPF), that such foods should carry tobacco-style warnings. Last year a Lancet review highlighted that in Ireland, Britain and the US, more than half the average diet now consists of UPF; for some who are younger and poorer, it i…
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