# Ireland

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/ie/info

- Local name: Éire
- Caps in the collection: 143 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/23)
- Brands: 73

## Beer in Ireland

Historically Ireland brewed ale without hops. Hops are not native, so large quantities came from England: more than 500 tons through Dublin alone in 1752. In the second half of the 18th century English porter arrived in growing amounts (15,000 barrels in 1750, over 100,000 in 1792), while about 600,000 barrels a year were brewed in Ireland in the 1760s. By 1800 there were over two hundred breweries on the island, fifty-five of them in Dublin. John Smithwick started brewing at Kilkenny in 1710, on land leased from the Duke of Ormond in 1705; it is often said that Franciscan monks had brewed on the same ground since the 14th century, but no source confirms it. Arthur Guinness set up a small brewery in County Kildare in 1756 and on 31 December 1759 signed a 9,000-year lease at 45 pounds a year on the disused brewery at St James's Gate, Dublin.

In Cork, William Beamish and William Crawford began brewing porter on 17 January 1792 in a lane used for brewing since at least 1650; by 1805 they made 100,000 barrels a year, the most in Ireland until Guinness passed them in 1833. Father Theobald Matthew's temperance campaign roughly halved Irish beer output between 1837 and 1843, but exports to England grew from 11,328 barrels in 1828 to 689,796 in 1901. James J. Murphy opened the Lady's Well Brewery in Cork in 1856, and by 1906 it was the second largest in Ireland. Guinness became a public company in October 1886, selling 1.138 million barrels a year. Macardle, Moore moved to Cambricville in Dundalk in 1863 and the Great Northern Brewery began there in 1896. The first lager brewery in Ireland, at Dartry in Dublin in 1891, did not last.

Guinness began using nitrogen in 1959 and in 1960 converted its Dundalk plant, with the German brewer Dr Hermann Muender, to make Harp Lager. It took a two-thirds majority in Irish Ale Brewers (and with it Macardle, Moore) in 1961 and bought Smithwick's in 1965; Beamish went to Carling O'Keefe in 1962, to Elders IXL in 1987 and to Scottish & Newcastle in 1995. Heineken bought Murphy's in 1983 and took Beamish with Scottish & Newcastle in 2008, closing the Beamish and Crawford brewery in March 2009 and moving its beer to Lady's Well. Guinness and Grand Metropolitan merged into Diageo in 1997, and on 9 May 2008 Diageo announced that Kilkenny and Dundalk would close: brewing ended at Dundalk on 30 September 2013 and at Kilkenny on 31 December 2013, and Smithwick's and Harp moved to St James's Gate. The Dundalk plant became the Great Northern Distillery in 2015. The Open Gate experimental brewery opened at St James's Gate on 19 November 2015.

Craft brewing began in the 1990s: the Porterhouse brewpub in Dublin's Temple Bar opened in May 1996, the O'Hara brothers founded Carlow Brewing the same year, and Franciscan Well in Cork followed in 1998. A second wave came in the mid-2000s and a third from 2013, helped by excise changes: Galway Bay began in 2009 at The Oslo pub, Dungarvan and Eight Degrees in 2010, Mescan and Rye River in 2013, Wicklow Wolf in 2014. By mid-2018 there were about 110 independent craft breweries on the island, with 2.8 per cent of beer sales in the Republic in 2017. Consolidation followed: Molson Coors bought Franciscan Well in 2013, Irish Distillers bought Eight Degrees in 2018 and the founders bought it back in January 2024, Hijos de Rivera took 32 per cent of Carlow in April 2017, Carrig and BRU merged in 2019 and joined Galway Bay in late 2021, and Warsteiner took a minority stake in Rye River in November 2022.

On 11 May 2026 Diageo opened its 300 million euro Littleconnell brewery near Newbridge, County Kildare, which takes over Smithwick's, Hop House 13 and the other ales and lagers from St James's Gate; a second brewery there for Guinness and Guinness 0.0, at a further 400 million euro, is planned by 2029, while St James's Gate stays the home of Guinness. In Cork, Heineken still brews Murphy's and Beamish at Lady's Well. Among the craft breweries, Killarney Brewing and Distilling ceased operations in July 2025 with 54 jobs lost, and its campus at Fossa was bought by the Swiss group Spirit Capital in July 2026.

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Beer in Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Ireland)
- [Wikipedia: List of breweries in Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_breweries_in_Ireland)
- [Wikipedia: Guinness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness)
- [Wikipedia: Smithwick's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithwick%27s)
- [Wikipedia: Beamish and Crawford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamish_and_Crawford)
- [Wikipedia: Murphy's Brewery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_Brewery)
- [Wikipedia: Great Northern Brewery, Dundalk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_Brewery,_Dundalk)
- [Wikipedia: Carlow Brewing Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlow_Brewing_Company)
- [Brewery History Society: Macardle, Moore & Co. Ltd](https://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php/Macardle,_Moore_%26_Co._Ltd)
- [Brewery History Society: Porterhouse Brewing Co](https://www.breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php/Porterhouse_Brewing_Co)
- [Beoir: BRU and Galway Bay merge (2021)](https://beoir.org/2021/11/16/bru-and-galway-bay-merge/)
- [Inside Beer: Warsteiner takes a minority stake in Rye River Brewing (2022)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/ireland-warsteiner-group-takes-minority-stake-in-rye-river-brewing/)
- [Food Manufacture: Eight Degrees founders buy back brewery (2024)](https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2024/01/30/founders-buy-back-eight-degrees-brewery-from-pernod-ricard-subsidiary/)
- [Food Ingredients First: Guinness opens Dublin brewery to the public (2015)](https://www.foodingredientsfirst.com/news/guinness-opens-dublin-brewery-to-the-public.html)
- [Food Manufacture: Guinness owner to pump over 600M into new brewery (2026)](https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2026/05/11/guinness-is-set-to-invest-over-600m-into-a-new-irish-brewing-site/)
- [Irish Times: Diageo boss pledges further investment on the back of soaring black stuff sales (2026)](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/05/12/diageo-boss-promises-more-investment-on-the-back-of-soaring-sales-of-the-black-stuff/)
- [Irish Examiner: Killarney Brewing and Distillery campus up for sale (2025)](https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/companies/arid-41730057.html)
- [Inside Beer: Spirit Capital acquires Killarney Brewing and Distilling facility (2026)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/ireland-spirit-capital-acquires-shuttered-killarney-brewing-distilling-facility)
- [Archontology: Ireland, Polity Style 1919-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/eire/01_polity.php)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Ireland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ireland)

## Breweries (29)

- [Brewery 9 White Deer](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6967.md) — 1 cap, 2014–
- [Ballykilcavan Brewing Co.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5149.md) — 1 cap, 2016–
- [Blacks Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3708.md) — 1 cap, 2013–
- [Boyne Brewhouse](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3711.md) — 1 cap, 2016–2019, closed
- [Bru Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5158.md) — 2 caps, 2013–
- [Carlow Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/992.md) — 9 caps, 1996–
- [Dundalk Bay Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5841.md) — 1 cap, 2017–
- [Dungarvan Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5151.md) — 1 cap, 2010–
- [E. Smithwick & Sons St. Francis Abbey Brewery (Diageo) Ltd.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1061.md) — 7 caps, 1710–2013, closed
- [Eight Degrees Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3782.md) — 1 cap, 2010–
- [Galway Bay Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3973.md) — 2 caps, 2009–
- [Guinness & Co.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/516.md) — 78 caps, 1759–
- [Killarney Brewing Company Ltd.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3923.md) — 1 cap, 2015–2025, closed
- [Brewery Le Grá](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6894.md) — 1 cap
- [MacArdle Moore Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2307.md) — 2 caps, 1863–2000, closed
- [Mescan Brewery Ltd.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4702.md) — 9 caps, 2013–
- [Mo Chara](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/6788.md) — 1 cap
- [Murphy Brewery Ireland Ltd.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/919.md) — 4 caps, 1856–
- [Open Gate Brewery (Guinness)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4206.md) — 1 cap, 2015–
- [Pearse Lyons Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5264.md) — 1 cap, 2018–
- [Porterhouse Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2911.md) — 3 caps, 1996–
- [Rye River Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3600.md) — 6 caps, 2013–
- [Shelta Beer Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3143.md) — 1 cap
- [Smithwick’s - St. Francis Abbey Brewery (Guinness)](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/274.md) — 3 caps
- [The Great Northern Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2184.md) — 1 cap, 1896–2013, closed
- [The White Hag Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3215.md) — 1 cap, 2014–
- [Western Herd Brewing Company](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5150.md) — 1 cap, 2015–
- [Brewery White Gypsy](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/5155.md) — 1 cap, 2010–
- [Wicklow Wolf Brewing Co. Ltd.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/4715.md) — 1 cap, 2014–