Michael Bradbury & Cathal Connolly are the owners of ‘Bradbury & Connolly’ - HotSchoolmeals.ie . It is a Galway family run business set up to supply Galway schools with the highest quality nutritious school meals.
Michael’s family ‘Bradbury’s Bakery of Athy’ Co Kildare have been involved in the food and catering industry since the 1930s and have been providing schools meals to primary schools across Kildare and Leinster since 2010.
“My sister Jill was receiving enquiries from schools in the west of Ireland about catering for their school meal requirements and had mentioned it to me on occasion.....So that’s where the spark or inspiration originated,” said Michael Bradbury
“I’m a practicing solicitor myself, but I guess the Baking and Food Industry is in my blood having worked in the bakery at home throughout my childhood”
“So, Cathal & Myself starting hatching plans. Cathal is the co founder and operator of “Grind” Café/Restaurants located in Merchant’s Road in the city and Briarhill Shopping Centre.
Cathal Connolly said they were lucky to have guidance and mentoring of the Bradbury family over the last 12 months.
“Johnny, Tom, John and Jill have been grafting, evolving, growing and innovating in Kildare for the last 15 years and we were so fortunate to jump in on top of all that experience.
“In addition, we will be forever grateful for our original ‘Magnificent Seven’ schools who took a chance on us before we were even operational; Scoil Mhuire Brierhill, Lisheenkyle, Gael Scoil Dara, Scoil Bhride Menlo, Athenry NS, Scoil Iosa Oranmore & Ballymana NS all nominated us as their school meal provider whilst we were still kitting out our facility in the Claregalway Corporate Park. We hope we have repaid that trust to them since April 2024,” added Cathal.
Michael and Cathal, both graduates of the University of Limerick, are now supplying 17 schools in Galway with commitments from 15 others when they are approved for funding by the Department of Social Protection.
“We are very proud to be a Galway family-run business, supplying Galway schools. All of our employees are Galwegians now and some of our Galway suppliers include Burkes Fruit & Veg, John Curley Foods, Williams Gate butchers, Loughnanes & BWG with other suppliers in the pipeline.
“My favourite meal is Shepherd’s Pie. Michael is our CTO - Chief Tasting Officer and says he simply cannot pick his favourite, as it would be unfair on the others !!!,” he added.
If you would like to find out more about ‘Bradbury & Connolly’ - HotSchoolMeals.ie or organise a sample tasting for all the teachers and staff in your school contact Cathal Connolly directly.
