Editorial note: All information in this article is based on our June 2025 visit, as part of a larger article on Irish Cheese to be later featured in the Winter 2026 issue of Culture: The Word on Cheese Magazine. Please fact-check all details, figures, technical descriptions, and current business information directly with the cheesemaker before sharing or publishing.
Sometimes, the best food businesses begin with a problem to solve.
At Cooleeney Farm, just outside Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland, that problem was surplus milk. In the mid-1980s, fluctuations in milk prices made it increasingly important to find another use for the family's milk. Rather than simply accept the uncertainty, Breda Maher decided to learn how to make cheese.
It's a good thing she did. The Maher family had been farming here for generations, with records of awards for milk quality dating back to 1905. Their Friesian herd and dairy farm had a long-established reputation, but cheesemaking opened an entirely new chapter. Breda set out to learn the craft, and in 1986, Cooleeney Cheese officially launched.
At the time, Ireland's artisan cheese scene was still developing. While some of the country's emerging cheesemakers were exploring traditional hard cheeses and blue cheeses, the Mahers chose a different path: soft, surface-ripened cheeses with delicate white rinds and creamy interiors. That decision helped distinguish Cooleeney from the beginning.
Today, the farm is home to more than 200 Friesian cows grazing green pastures across the family's land and additional rented acreage. The operation has grown, but its foundations remain the same: good milk, thoughtful farming, and a family willing to learn something new.
When we visited Cooleeney, we were welcomed into a family business where the generations aren't simply preserving a legacy—they're actively building its future. Jim and Breda represent the eldest generation still working in the business. Their son Pat and his wife Johanna help manage the operation, alongside their four children. With 17 grandchildren in the extended family, there's no shortage of potential future cheesemakers, farmers, and entrepreneurs.
The farm's history is evident in the details, from the long-established dairy herd to the family knowledge that has accumulated over decades. But what makes Cooleeney particularly special is the way that history continues to evolve.
The younger generation is already involved. Grandchildren have worked summer jobs in the packaging and wrapping rooms, learning firsthand what it takes to get a finished cheese ready for customers. Paul, one of the family's younger members, has expressed an interest in farming and is preparing to carry the tradition forward.
For a family business, succession isn't just about passing along a name or a piece of land. It's about passing along skills, relationships, and a sense of responsibility for what comes next. At Cooleeney, that future feels tangible.
Cooleeney's signature style is the bloomy rind, also called a surface-ripened cheese. These cheeses develop a soft white rind that helps transform the paste from a firmer, sometimes chalky center into a creamy, yielding interior as they mature.
It's a style that requires patience and attention. The cheesemakers must manage the cultures, temperature, humidity, and maturation process to encourage the rind to develop properly while the cheese evolves inside.
During our visit, we toured the creamery, cheesemaking room, ripening rooms, and packaging facility. Katrina gave us a rare behind-the-scenes look at the operation, showing us the different stages that turn milk from the farm into finished wheels ready for the cheese counter.
We also learned about the cultures used in production, sourced from France and Denmark, and the careful management of the molds that help shape each cheese's character.
Cooleeney's website describes the attention given to every batch, from the addition of cultures and rennet to the draining, turning, brining, and controlled maturation of the wheels. The cheese isn't simply made and left to its own devices; the team monitors its development throughout the process.
That care is especially important for soft cheeses, where small differences in handling and maturation can create meaningful changes in texture and flavor.
One of the highlights of our visit happened before we even got to the tasting. Michael welcomed us to the farm and invited our kids to help light the smoker. It was a memorable hands-on introduction to another side of Cooleeney's cheesemaking: cold-smoking selected cheeses over wood chips to add another layer of flavor.
The family makes two smoked cheeses that showcase different woods. Smokey Orchard is smoked over applewood, giving it an earthy character with a gentle, lingering apple-smoke finish. Smokey Tipperary Brie uses oak, bringing a different dimension to the cheese.
The process is a reminder that even a familiar cheese style can be transformed through thoughtful experimentation. The goal isn't to bury the flavor of the milk or the cheese beneath smoke, but to create a new expression of the original product.
For our kids, getting to participate made the visit all the more memorable. For us, it was another example of the generosity and enthusiasm that made the whole experience feel so personal.
After our tour, we were treated to a tasting of Cooleeney's cheeses by none other than Breda herself.
There is something special about tasting cheese with the person who created it. You aren't just sampling a product; you're hearing the story of why it was made, what makes it different, and how it fits into a much larger journey. We tasted our way through several cheeses, each offering a different expression of the family's work.
Cooleeney
The original cheese—and the only cheese the family made until 2003—is a Camembert-style, white-mold-ripened cheese made with cow's milk.
At around six to eight weeks of age, the cheese we tasted had a soft, creamy layer beneath its white rind, with a paler, chalkier center. The rind carried those lovely white-mushroom notes that make bloomy-rind cheeses so appealing, while the paste offered a gentle contrast between the firmer center and the more yielding outer layer.
As it continues to mature, the center softens and the flavors develop, becoming more rounded and creamy. It's a lovely example of how time changes not just a cheese's texture, but the entire eating experience.
Dunbarra
Dunbarra is another white-mold-ripened cheese, but with a distinctly buttery, creamy character. Available plain, garlic, and pepper, it gives the family a chance to explore different flavor profiles while keeping that soft, approachable cheese at the center.
The plain version is rich and buttery, while the flavored versions offer additional layers without losing the underlying cheese character. We tasted the pepper and garlic varieties, which demonstrate how a simple addition can create a different experience for the cheesemonger and customer alike.
Dunbarra reaches maturity at approximately eight to ten weeks, making it a lovely example of the family's expertise with surface-ripened cheeses.
Dáru
Dáru takes us in a different direction.
Rather than a soft bloomy rind, this is a semi-hard, natural-rind cheese with a pale yellow paste and a slightly chalky center when younger. As it matures, the texture becomes more cohesive and the flavor develops.
At around six months, the Dáru we tasted had a mild, buttery character with earthy, cellar-like notes from its natural rind. Its combination of chalkiness, developing creaminess, and rustic rind reminded us of a cross between Tomme Crayeuse and Toma Piemontese.
The family also makes flavored versions, including chili black pepper and garlic. The chili black pepper version isn't simply about heat; the peppers bring their own flavor and sweetness to the cheese.
Dáru is a good example of Cooleeney's willingness to move beyond the style that first established its reputation, exploring a different texture and a longer maturation period while remaining grounded in its own milk and cheesemaking expertise.
Gleann Óir
Gleann Óir introduces another ingredient into the Cooleeney story: goat's milk from a neighboring farm.
This semi-soft, natural-rind cheese has a bright, lemony minerality, balanced by earthy, cellar-like notes from the rind. The result is a different expression of the local landscape and a reminder that collaboration can be just as important as what happens within a single farm.
We love the way this cheese reflects a wider network of neighboring producers. The Mahers have their own dairy herd, but they also recognize the value of working with other local farmers to create something distinctive.
Smokey Orchard and Smokey Tipperary Brie
We also tasted the family's smoked cheeses, which offer another layer of variety in the range.
Smokey Orchard brings together a semi-soft cheese and the gentle, earthy finish of applewood smoke. Smokey Tipperary Brie takes a different approach, using oak to create its own smoky expression.
Both demonstrate the versatility of the family's cheesemaking. Rather than treating smoking as a novelty, Cooleeney uses it to create cheeses with their own personalities and culinary possibilities.
Growing Without Losing What Matters
Cooleeney remained a relatively small operation until the early 2000s. Around that time, the family faced a period of change, including personal loss and the realities of raising a young family while running a business. They ultimately decided to invest in the cheesemaking operation and expand its reach.
That decision marked an important turning point. What had started as a practical solution to surplus milk became a more substantial business, with a broader range of cheeses and greater production capacity.
Today, Cooleeney cheeses reach customers through supermarkets, specialty retailers, and markets. The business has found a way to make its cheeses accessible to a wider audience while retaining its family-farm identity.
Its website also emphasizes quality control and food safety, including a comprehensive HACCP system, trained staff, and independent microbiological testing. These systems support the family's commitment to ensuring that every cheese reaches customers in good condition.
For a cheesemaker, growth can bring difficult choices. How do you increase production without losing the qualities that made customers fall in love with the cheese in the first place? How do you bring new people into the business while preserving the knowledge of those who have been there from the beginning?
At Cooleeney, the answer seems to be a combination of investment, careful process management, and family involvement at every level.
As our visit wound down, Breda said something that stayed with me.
“I don't ever see it as work. I just love it. It's not work for me. It's fun.”
And I believed her.
Breda struck me as the embodiment of strength, resolve, and determination, balanced by a graceful ease, confidence, and optimism about the future. She has spent decades building a cheesemaking business, adapting to changing circumstances, raising a family, and helping establish a lasting place for Cooleeney in Ireland's artisan cheese landscape. Yet she spoke about it with the enthusiasm of someone who still finds joy in the everyday work.
That may be the most important ingredient in the whole operation. Cheesemaking requires patience, repetition, physical effort, and a willingness to learn from every batch. It isn't always glamorous. There are early mornings, long days, and plenty of details that must be handled correctly. But when the work is connected to something you genuinely love, it becomes more than a job. For Breda, it is a craft, a livelihood, a family legacy, and a source of pleasure all at once.
We left Cooleeney Farm grateful for the hospitality, the behind-the-scenes access, the chance to involve our kids in the experience, and the opportunity to taste so many cheeses with the woman who helped bring them into the world. The farm's story began with generations of dairy farming and a simple challenge: what to do with surplus milk. Breda's curiosity transformed that challenge into a cheesemaking business, and the family has continued to build on her work ever since.
Today, Cooleeney is both a working dairy farm and a home for a diverse range of artisan cheeses. The original bloomy-rind cheese remains at the heart of the story, but Dunbarra, Dáru, Gleann Óir, and the smoked cheeses demonstrate how much the family has explored along the way. Perhaps most encouragingly, the next generation is already finding its place. The skills and knowledge that took decades to develop are being shared with younger family members who may carry the farm forward.
In the end, Cooleeney reminds us that great cheese isn't only about milk, cultures, and maturation. It's also about people who care enough to keep learning, families who are willing to adapt, and a passion that can sustain a business across generations. And if Breda is any indication, the future of Cooleeney is in very good hands.
Do Good. Eat Good.
— Kendall, Antonelli's Cheese
My social post on our visit:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKkr_LkNZtC/
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