Fatty acid profiling of new Irish microalgal isolates producing the high-value metabolites EPA and DHA

•Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles of 85 microalgae strains from the West of Ireland screened by GC–MS.•Hierarchical clustering grouped strains into 5 assemblages based on FAME profiles.•Three marine strains with capacity to produce FAMEs EPA and/or DHA were batch grown.•Strains GMC30, LACW24 and LACW34 yielded on average 3.9, 11.9 and 1.3mg EPA / g dry weight (DW).•Strains GMC30 and LACW34 yielded on average 3.0 and 2.0mg DHA / g DW, respectively.