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Winkle clan shell shocked by law

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN – A periwinkle-selling family with a 100-year-old tradition of summer business on Clare’s Kilkee beach hopes to get a reprieve from tough new trading standards regulations.

Frank Kelly said the business was begun by his grandmother. His mother sold periwinkles for 56 years and he took over seven years ago.

Kelly pledged he would go to jail rather than face the “massive bills involved” in the new trading laws.

When he was selling his winkles on the strand last month he was handed a letter by a local council official saying they had to get a trading licence, _2 million in public liability insurance and a note from the health board clearing them to sell the shellfish.

“I was very upset about this carry on. I haven’t got a restaurant,” said Kelly, who sells from a small table on the strand.

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The Kellys collect the winkles, clean them, boil them and then sell them. They charge 50p for a packet of about 40.

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