A little bit of humour

Vincent Nolan
Vincent Nolan is a bit of a character. Everyone who knows him, enjoys his stories and company. Probably because he's always out for a bit of fun and 'devilment'. A real gentleman, he is the son of founder Harry and the father of George the Managing Director.

His current role in Nolan's is as Chairman. He jokes that nowadays, he only comes in to sign a lot of cheques and hopes that the odd one is for him. Comical comments from the man who came up with the mail order idea for Nolans smoked salmon, which today is a key part of their business.

Apart from his love of fish, Vincent has always had a passionate love of music and of golf. Below are two funny stories involving this interesting man.

007 takes on Vincent
Recently playing in a golf competition , Vincent had the pleasure of playing a round with none other than the actor Sean Connery. As the game progressed, Vincent was pretty content as he was matching the big scotsman shot for shot. Well, almost. His short game, chipping in particular, was poor and letting him down.

When they got to the end of the round, Connery approached the colourful Nolan with a wry grin on his face. "I hear you're in the fish business", he said. "Yes, I am", replied Vincent. Connery thought for a moment, then turned away to walk towards the clubhouse while saying, "Well I hope your fish is better than your chips!" A 'birdie' for the actor.

Photo captions:
(1) Vincent Nolan, Frank Sinatra and Oliver Barry, after Frank performed a concert at Landsdowne Road which was prompted by Oliver.
(2) Vincent pictured with Governor Hugh Carey at his home in Shelter Island, Long Island.
(3) Vincent playing piano at Governor Hugh Carey's home. The piano, a Bosendorfer, was formerly owned by Frank Sinatra who did a private show for the Governor.

Golf or music?
A great friend of Vincent's who has since passed away, often spoke of the fish man's love and passion for golf and music. Vincent, he would say, would often be seen at the front row of an Oscar Peterson concert. Eager to see how much he could learn from the pianist, he would almost fall out of his chair by leaning forward, stretching to watch the maestro in action.

The same applied with the great golfer Jack Nicklaus. If Vincent was at any competition the American was playing, he would stick to him for the entire round. Every shot was watched, every stroke analysed, and every back swing scrutinised. Anything just to learn from the greats.

Unfortunately though, his friend would laugh, Vincent must have got things confused. Because he ended up playing golf like Oscar Peterson and the piano like Jack Nicklaus!

Salmon Tales

Nolans smoked salmon... it's so good, even the neighbours steal it!!!
Our smoked salmon is appreciated the world over but we never realised how much.

One of our many customers in the UK recently told us of something that had happened to him. He had ordered centre-cut smoked salmon through our mail order business and was patiently expecting delivery within the customary 24 hours.

Imagine his surprise, on returning home from shopping, to find something other than the smoked delicacy inside the Nolan packaging. A tin of salmon!

Perplexed and disappointed he contacted our customer services department. We obviously knew nothing about it and suggested he check with his neighbours.

He did and the mystery was solved.

The postman had arrived at his house when he was out and decided to leave the fish with his next door neighbour. The temptation proved too much for his friend and one nibble of the succulent salmon led to another. He couldn't stop himself and in a short time, the entire fish had been eaten! Ooops! He obviously possessed a keen sense of humour as he decided to wrap a tin of salmon in the packaging and return the gift to his neighbour's front door.

Our advice to you? If you get tinned salmon instead of smoked, check with someone you know. They've probably nabbed it!

We'd like to hear your stories
If you've any funny tales to do with Nolans smoked salmon, we'd love to read them. Please send them to the postal or e-mail address in the 'contact us' page. If we like it, we'll put it on our web site for all to see.