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THE man who turned Nolan's Irish Seafood into an international brand with The White House among its customers has died.
Vincent Nolan, who was aged 87, was well known in the fish business both in Ireland and in Britain. He was also one of Dublin's great characters and a talented pianist who played with the legendary Hoagie Carmichael. He also played for various charitable causes including the homeless.Vincent took over Nolan's Irish Seafood from his father Harry - a Belfast fish salesman - who founded the company in the 1920s and changed it from a largely Irish operation into an international one.
In the early 1950s there was such a glut of salmon that it was being sold in fish and chip shops in the British Isles, so the firm decided to smoke it and sell it as a delicacy. He placed an advertisement in the Sunday Times and before long a mail order business from the UK had built up. At one time the firm supplied almost exclusively kosher salmon to the Jewish community in Dublin under the supervision of a Rabbi. After President Kennedy came to Ireland, the White House in Washington became a customer and this continued under Lyndon Johnson.Nolan's supplies smoked salmon and other seafood to nearly 20 countries including Britain.
The company has its HQ in Dublin and is also located at two of the country's main fishing ports Killybegs, where there is a packing and distribution organisation, and at Howth. A total of 67 boats land at the two ports supplying seafood to the business. Twice a day refrigerated trucks collect fish from the western part of the country and transport it to Dublin.
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