In amongst the sighs of relief of Pint drinkers that Diageo weren't going to do the dirty on St. James' Gate after all, it just about slipped out that their Dundalk and Kilkenny breweries were shutting.
Dundalk is better known in more recent times as the home of Harp Lager. Off the market further south for many years, Harp has had a curious afterlife in what may be broadly called the North of Ireland, holding its own against Tennants Lager compared to the "Heino" dominated market in the south of Ireland. However, the Dundalk brewery first came to light as the home of Macardle Moore and Sons, brewers of the once widely available Macardles Ale. Macardles now barely survives as a can only drink at the cheaper end of the off licence market but was once almost as widely available on tap as Smithwicks is now. Macardles was a darker and punchier ale than Smithwicks and used to be a winter alternative for me. Unfortunately in Diageo's ongoing rush to homogenise as much of the Nation's beer as possible Macardles is quietly dying, with no attempt whatsoever by Diageo to promote the beer.
Smithwick's Brewery is being closed as well. Once an integral part of Kilkenny, Diageo shifted the brewing of Smithwicks to the former Cherry's Brewery, home of Phoenix Ale, a rare bird that up to a few years ago turned up on the lower shelf of pubs in some parts of the country with the other pint bottles off the shelf.
Across the country, there are remnants of a former time, not too long ago, where different ales were available across the country. Bass is fast disappearing altogether. Phoenix, Time, Smithwicks Barley Wine and Macardles are now a thing of the past. The responsibility for this lies entirely with Guinness Ireland. Once breweries were brought out by Guinness the brands were homogenised and ultimately abandoned. Local beers were replaced with the Holy Trinity of Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks. Guinness abandoned their own historic Dublin Porter in the early 1970s, which would have been a viable product to relaunch in the 1980s instead of the notoriously misguided Guinness Light. Guinness then encouraged the onslaught of poor imitations of continental lagers and rolled out like a steamroller bland and chemical laden beers like there was no tomorrow. A brief revival of craft brewing in the 1990s ended up being effectively still born. Guinness came up with the wheeze of introducing "St James Gate" branded craft beers which displaced craft beers in the pubs selling them, and then abandoned the brand when their position in the marketplace remained assured.
Imagine pulling that sort of market dominance stunt in say, England or Belgium. Many Irish drinkers may laugh at the idea of the Campaign for Real Ale in Britain, but here was a case where drinkers challenged the orthodoxy of the brewers and arguably lead to a revolution in the brewing industry there. Belgium naturally is Nirvana for the beer drinker who wants interesting and complex beers that rival wine in terms of quality and choice. The few Irish craft breweries like the Porterhouse in Dublin, Hilden in Co. Down and Biddy Early's in Clare need to be given a try out by Irish drinkers and who knows, might even like them enough to create a market for them.
Perhaps in some rural pub miles from anywhere there are still pint bottles of Macardles, Smithwicks or Phoenix, waiting for a regular with a half pint glass and nipping out to relight his pipe of Mick McQuaid between nips. Not everything about our past is worthy of being binned in the name of greater efficency.
Portal 
