Dun Laoghaire street trader offers fast food in the form of baked potatoes.
Ciaran Hayden, or Sid Spud as he prefers to be called, sells baked potatoes on the streets of Dun Laoghaire. He gave up his job to sell one of the oldest and cheapest meals you can buy - baked potatoes. With an initial capital outlay of £5,000, he bought a mobile oven cart. Working 11 hours a day he needs to sell 50 potatoes every day just to break even. Although only two days selling in Dun Laoghaire he has already had repeat customers.
Once people get to know me, they'll keep coming back.
For 40 pence, customers get a piping hot big Irish baked potato with butter, a fork, a serviette and a bit of salt.
The baked potato oven cart has been used in the United Kingdom since the last century and have recently experienced a revival. In the old days, the ovens were fuelled by coal.
Previously employed as a salesman for a detergent company Ciaran Hayden always enjoyed cooking and decided to turn it into a career. .
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 17 December 1982. The reporter is Peter McNiff.
