Supermac’s
Ireland’s own fast-food chain from Galway, which took McDonald’s to the EU courts over the word “Mac”.
About Supermac’s
Pat and Una McDonagh opened the first Supermac’s in Ballinasloe, County Galway, in 1978. The name came from Pat’s nickname as a Gaelic footballer at Carmelite College in Moate. A second restaurant followed in Gort, then one on Eyre Square in Galway city in 1982. Today there are about 120, making it the largest Irish-owned quick-service chain, and the company also runs motorway plazas, hotels and the Irish franchise of Papa John’s.
Supermac’s is as much a part of Irish life as the GAA, which it has sponsored in Galway since 1990, one of the longest county sponsorships in the country. The menu people talk about is not only burgers: the Chicken Breast Sandwich, the snack box of fried chicken and chips, and chips dressed with garlic mayonnaise and cheese, or with curry sauce, are the things emigrants say they miss. In 2015 it launched a 5oz burger of fresh Irish beef, which it says was the first fresh-meat burger at an Irish quick-service chain.
The name has also made legal history. When Supermac’s tried to register its trademarks across the EU in 2017 to expand abroad, McDonald’s objected. Supermac’s countered by challenging McDonald’s own marks, and in 2019 the EU trademark office revoked McDonald’s Big Mac trademark. After appeals, an EU court ruled in June 2024 that McDonald’s keeps “Big Mac” only for beef burgers, leaving everyone else free to use “Mac” for chicken products and restaurant names.
About 120 restaurants across the island of Ireland, several of them at motorway service plazas.
Burger menu
Signature burgers first. Only burgers and sandwiches, no sides.
If you like Supermac’s
Chains whose signature burgers are built the same way.- Hans im Glück (Germany, since 2010). The Munich burger grill with birch trunks inside and a fairy-tale name. Also built on beef, a special sauce and cheese.
- Hesburger (Finland, since 1980). The Finnish chain that outsold McDonald’s in the Nordics and the Baltics. Also built on beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack.
- MEATliquor (United Kingdom, since 2012). A burger van turned into a dark, loud London bar famous for the Dead Hippie. Also built on beef, cheese and a double stack.
- Peter Pane (Germany, since 2016). The German burger-and-cocktail chain that split from Hans im Glück. Also built on beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack.
Not affiliated with Supermac’s. Trademarks and logos belong to their owners. Descriptions are my own; nutrition figures come from the chain’s published information, checked October 2026.