'400 a day' Beloved Laois shopkeeper Aidan Byrnes serves best '99 cones in Laois

Mountrath shopkeeper Aidan Byrnes recently won hands down the Leinster Express Readers’ Choice best ‘99 in Laois award for 2026, the second year running.

Last Friday Aidan proudly accepted his certificate presented to him in his shop on Main Street. It will join his 2025 certificate framed and proudly on display.

He is very thankful for the hundreds of votes that saw him win the title once again.

“Thanks to everyone for voting for me. I got a bigger vote than last year. The award gave the ice creams a boost.

“People saw it and they came in from different counties to us. Two girls came here from county Meath one day, especially, they came out for the drive,” he said.

There is still plenty of time to sample the delicious cones this year.

“I’m going to let it go this year into October, because they are still popular. The demand is still there.

“In the height of the summer it was getting over 400 cones a day. All the minerals in the fridge were flying out of it as well. I was stocking it every night to have them cold the next day. Now it can go back to maybe 100 cones, which is still good,” Aidan said.

The secret to his success, Aidan said, is “keeping the fridge very clean”.

“Clean it often, it’s supposed to be cleaned every six days, which I do,” he said.

Lucy O’Brien from Mountrath and her Galway cousin Adam Powala were lucky enough to be in the shop to get free ice-cream in celebration of the certificate presentation.

“It’s really good. I used to think other ice-creams were the best but then I came here, and I was like, this is so much creamier,” Lucy declared.

The shop is in business for almost 80 years, since 1948 when married couple John and Agnes Byrne arrived to Mountrath and opened it up.

“My mother was from Donegal and my father from Tipperary. They bought here for £500. He got ill when I was in school in Ballyfin, he got a stroke and I had to learn to drive at 16 or 17 years of age, to go with him to the wholesalers in Dublin,” Aidan said.

He went on to work in the shop his whole adult life, almost 60 years.

In recent years Aidan’s sister Bernadette returned from living in Saudi Arabia to share the running of the shop. It opens a gruelling 9am to 9pm, seven days a week, with no other staff.

“We did open until 10pm. We have no time off really. You get used to it. You don’t notice it, the time passing,” said Aidan, who is now aged 75.

“We have very loyal customers. They keep telling me to stay on. I’m retired since 2023, but they won’t let me,” he said.