Here, in Ireland, it becomes increasingly difficult to buy good bread.

Of the supermarkets, Superquinn produces a reasonable, baked-on-the-premises, offering but it does not compare to the bread that one remembers before we became addicted to 'one stop shopping' and began to accept what we were offered rather than what we chose.

When I first came to Thomastown, and for many years thereafter, we had a bakery in Thomastown, Comerfords bakery.

I do not know the details but I would be fairly certain that it succumbed to the purchasing and marketing powers of the supermarkets.
It had grown to be quite a large operation before it closed and I suspect that it simply could not remain profitable on the prices being offered by the burgeoning supermarket chains. Just as the many water-powered flour mills in Thomastown, that once produced the flour for the bread, had been squeezed out of business in the 1940's and 50's by big operators who, with the economies of scale, could do the job more cheaply.

These thoughts about bread were sparked by our family get together last weekend.

At more than one of the meals we had together, everybody remarked on how good the (white) bread was.

Now we had Hannah from London, Alice and Fergal from Dublin and Naoise, Ashley, Dylan and Jude from Galway and they all declared that it was the best bread they had had for a long time.
The bread in question was the crusty, turnover loaf produced by Keogh's Model Bakery in nearby Callan.

It is delicious fresh, it ages well and makes brilliant toast.

Until recently it came un-packaged but now, because of more 'nanny state' regulations, it is wrapped in plastic so, by the time it reaches the table the once crisp crust has, sadly, softened.

Notably, it is stocked, not by the supermarkets but by two, small, 'corner' shops, in the town.

I have heard, indeed discovered, that this situation regarding bread, pertains in France also and, I understand, for similar reasons.

Take the baguette that thin, long, crusty loaf, that the French buy fresh every day, or even twice a day and eat at every meal.
Sadly you can no longer be certain that it will be substantially better than the muck that Cuisine de France produce here and sell as 'French bread'.

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But, as I have mentioned in a different context, we are fortunate to have, here in Thomastown, an artisan (in today's parlance, probably, 'craft') butcher.

To retain a butchers that performs today as it did since it was founded and for it to have remained in the same family throughout is, I suspect, a rare privilege. And, as a consequence, to have access to meat that has been reared in the immediate locality, by farmers one may well know, killed on the premises and butchered according to local tastes is, in my view, certainly something to be supported and cherished.

And I hope, for the same reasons, that the citizens of Callan will continue to support and cherish Kehoe's Model Bakery.