Doing The Business

Doing the Business: Sally Barnes on four decades of Cork’s Woodcock Smokery

One of Ireland’s iconic artisan food producers, Barnes is now teaching fish smoking courses in an attempt to pass on the skill to future generations

Sally Barnes founded Woodcock Smokery in West Cork in 1979. Picture: Max Jones.

“It’s not easy being a woman in this industry you know,” Sally Barnes laughs, explaining her career thus far to me over the phone. “I had to work so hard to get here.”

Barnes is one of Ireland’s greatest small producers, and is known as much for her dry wit as her exceptional smoked fish. Woodcock Smokery, which she founded more than 40 years ago, sells a range of smoked fish products, but is probably ...