Bord Iascaigh Mhara is a company that aims to expand the future of Ireland’s seafood industry. One way to do this is to inform the public, by creating competitions to raise awareness. In June 2016, third year students Mary Mullan and Grace Mulhall won a cookery competition based in Clonakilty. They wowed judges with their cod turnovers and smoked salmon pancakes. Our home economics class was awarded with a trip to the Seafood Development Centre and the two chefs won prize money as well.

Our home economics class and teacher, Ms. Hall, were welcomed into the centre. We were given a brief introduction to Bord Iascaigh Mhara and brought upstairs to meet some of the crew. We were introduced to John, Courtney and chef Tríona who told us about their careers in the seafood industry.

Tríona then gave a cookery demonstration to our class, recreating the two fish dishes. The feedback from my class was outstanding; they immensely enjoyed learning tricks of the trade, participating in the preparation and giving information in the questionnaires. It was clear that the workers were passionate and this raised the level of enjoyment for our class. We were all then very generously given the meal. It was a great opportunity to try something new, especially those of us that usually turn our noses up at fish. Everybody seemed to think the fish was really tasty.

The visit was brought to close after a visit to the student laboratory. We were given information regarding the food packaging and testing centre.

In conclusion, the trip was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all our class. The Bord Iascaigh Mhara team went above and beyond to make the visit interactive, educational and most importantly, entertaining. We would like to thank everybody at the Seafood Development Centre, especially John, Courtney, Tríona and Gloria.