Brewing History: Some Notes on Pre-Twentieth Century Kilkenny Breweries

From 'The Official Illustrated Guide to the Great Southern & Western Railway' - 1866

The early brewing history of Ireland is often quite murky, and trying to pinpoint the exact position of breweries and the brewers that operated in any give location is quite a tricky job until we get to the era of commercial directories, better record keeping, accurate maps and archived content of newspapers. Even after that point the history and development of breweries is difficult to track, especially beyond The Pale. Kilkenny's brewing history is similar in one way but somewhat different in another, as much of that history is difficult to clearly see due to being muddied by decades of marketing spiel which has been repeated and reprinted over the years.

But I have found a couple of trustworthy - although not primary - sources while trying to track down the historic commercial breweries of Kilkenny. The first is ‘The Brewing Industry in Kilkenny’ by T. B. Halpin which was published in the ‘Old Kilkenny Review’ in 1989. The second is the ‘Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 10, Kilkenny’ by John Bradley, who references Halpin's article quite often in his own work. Along with these two excellent sources I have come across other information from both online resources and archived papers accessed in my local library which give some interesting insights into brewing in the city in the 18^th and 19^th century. These are backed up by various commercial directories of the time, where many similar names crop up over the years often in different locations which adds to the headache of unravelling who brewed where. We also need to be careful with some references, as malt houses can confused with actual breweries by some historians. These are often separate entities although both can coexist on the same site of course. With all of these names it is also worth remembering that the owner and the actual brewer in these establishments were quite often different people, which adds yet another layer of complexity to any research into names associated with sites.

I should point out that I am not a Kilkenny local and have relied purely on sources referenced above and cited below for this post, nor am I a historian so I would welcome clarification of any the issues, dates or comments made here. Please feel free to read any of the articles, newspaper clippings and other sources I reference and get back to me on any points.

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A snapshot of the ebb and flow of breweries is given by Bradley as:

In 1787 there were ten breweries in the city, by 1824 the number had declined to five, and in 1837 it had fallen to four. There was evidently a flurry of activity in the years immediately following because by 1839 the number had increased to eight, but the expansion was short-lived. In 1841 there were five breweries and by 1856 there were only two — St Francis' Abbey (Smithwicks) and James's Street (Sullivans).¹

The earliest reference for a brewery location is on Pudding Lane in 1660, and the earliest mention of a named brewer is for a Miles Lyons in an unknown location in 1691 but the earliest mention by name and location is James’s Street Brewery established by a person named Archdeakin in 1702¹, and Bradley suggests there was brewing on this site before this date. (Some years later a Mathias Archdekin[sic] occupied a brewery and Distillery near Blackmill up until 1821⁴ which I have not seen mentioned elsewhere.) The brewery on James's Street appears to have passed through different hands - A John Hennessy was a brewer on this street at least in 1788³ - before becoming vacant in 1790. It was purchased and reopened by William Sullivan and William Loughnane in 1810⁴. 'Messrs. Sullivans Brewery' is mentioned in a newspaper article in March 1815¹³ when a fire broke out in the malt house there. (Indeed a portion of the brewery was destroyed by fire in October 1880¹⁴ while the funeral was taking place of the the then owner James Sullivan's brother Francis - grandsons of William and sons of Richard Sullivan M.P.) The company - which employed 150 people - actually consisted of two breweries and a bottling stores for mineral water and soft drinks when a new brewery was completed not far from the original site in June 1877¹⁵, the fire three years later destroyed part of the old brewery, not this new premises. It appears to have stayed in the Sullivan family until it finally closed 1919, the brewery being taken over by Smithwick’s and closed with the employees receiving 'a fortnight's notice that their services will be dispensed with.' according to one newspaper¹⁷, with parts of the premises were subsequently used as a maltings by Smithwicks⁴. Unfortunately the site is now a carpark for Market Cross Shopping Centre, although I found a c.1946 photo of the ivy covered entrance to the brewery in Halpin’s article and online here with another view here. This entrance appears to have been built in 1896 when James's Street itself was widened and this gateway built¹⁶.

An interesting aside to the actual brewing process, which helps to point to all the auxiliary jobs associated with breweries that are rarely considered, is that in 1897⁶ only Sullivan’s were using solely local cut corks to bottle their beers, Smithwick’s used a mix imported and locally made ones.

Advertisements like this one from 1895⁷ show that Sullivan’s were brewing a pale butt, a double stout, sparkling ales and hop bitters as well as manufacturing and bottling Mineral waters at this time, and note the plural 'breweries'. We can be relatively sure that they were brewing more than just these styles over the years too.

Here is another from The Kilkenny City and County Directory and Guide from 1884:

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Curiously there is also a mention of a Hibernian Anchor Brewery¹⁸ on James’s Street in 1859 which Bradley suggests may be the same site as Sullivan’s Brewery, and I now believe it was where Sullivan's built their new brewery. The Anchor brewery was owned by a T. Dunphy and Son and were brewing 'superior porter and ales' ¹⁹ at this time.

There is a George Reade brewing in James' Place in 1839 so perhaps there is some confusion over sites, or the names of the actual brewers working in the breweries owned by others, as is often the case in brewing history.

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[It is worth reading this more recent post for more information on Smithwick's brewery and its dubious claims. The following section was one of the reasons for me to write it, but I will leave this piece on the brewery as I originally wrote it, apart from highlighting new information that can be read in the newer post.]

Perhaps the biggest mover and shaker in Kilkenny brewing was started by Edmund Smithwick who opened St. Francis Abbey Brewery around 1827 after leasing the site of Bren(n)an’s distillery in that year. (Just to note that Brennan is a surname that crops up repeatedly in the names of brewers/distillers in the various commercial directories – although admittedly it if a very common local name.) The site is listed as a distillery at St. Francis’s Abbey run by Patrick Brenan[sic] in Pigot’s Directory of 1824, and the following year he was producing 26,000 gallons of spirit according to custom and excise reports for the period. An advertisement for its letting at this time clearly say it is a distillery that could be converted into a brewery⁸. Edmund is listed as a grocery and a wine merchants in Pigot’s also in 1824 and was in partnership with and Owen C. O’Callaghan – this partnership was dissolved in July 1827 along with a similar partnership for a corn, flour and boulting business⁹, so his commercial interests where extensive but I cannot find a mention of brewing until after the purchase of the St. Francis site.

In fact the site was only leased by Edmund in 1827, here is a note of the sale of that lease by Dudley Brennan son of the Michael Brennan above in 1867 via a solicitors journal. The name William Archebald seems to be the earliest one connected to this lease.

So if there was any commercial ale brewing on the site before this time I can find no reliable record of it (which means just that of course), although Halpin – who worked in Smithwick’s - suggests there may have been brewing for personal consumption on or near this site by an ancestor of Edmund – John Smithwick – when he was in partnership with a Richard Cole. [In fact, Coles site was nowhere near the St. Francis Abbey, it was near the Black Abbey and I show its rough location in the aforementioned post.] A messy article celebrating the brewery’s 275^th anniversary¹⁰ mentions first brewing dates of both 1706 and 1710 as well as mentioning a free farm grant for a brewery and distillery close to the brewery site given to the above-mentioned Cole. Curiously and article in the same paper 25 years before states that the firm of Smithwick’s was established in 1710 at the same time that Cole established a brewery, although as mentioned this seems to have been a retail brewery for household consumption. Any reliable articles I have come across state there is little evidence of beer brewing on the site prior to 1827 and some even point out that the site's connection with the Smithwick’s family was broken with the death of John anyway.¹¹ I have come across the story that the Smithwick’s could not officially declare their interest in the brewery prior to Catholic Emancipation due to Catholics not being allowed to own businesses, but it does not explain why Edmund, who owned a business in 1824 with O'Callaghan as we can see above, could not have put his name in directories or elsewhere at this time as a brewery owner with a different partner if such was the case? I personally think that a better claim may be that the Smithwick family were in business in Kilkenny from 1710 but - perhaps - not always in brewing ... maybe others can add more factual information to this. [This I did myself in the post noted at the start of this section on the Smithwick's brewery.]

George Measom in ‘The Official Illustrated Guide to the Great Southern & Western Railway’ mentions a visit to Edmond Smithwick’s brewery in 1866 where he sings the praises of the beer and the brewery while giving a nice description of the premises and supplying an excellent illustration of the site, which I have used at the start of this post. Interestingly he gives the date the brewery was established as 1828, presumably with the brewery's blessing at that time...

Anyhow, in 1897 Smithwick’s were brewing stouts and mild and bitter ales as well as an East India pale ale and a dinner ale¹², and like Sullivan’s they also bottled mineral waters. No mention directly of a red ale of course but presumably one of these could be a red ... and I have written about a Smithwick's amber ale before, but any thoughts that the current famous brew is the same as any ale that may have been brewed in 1710 is pretty spurious in my opinion, to say the least. [Again, more in that new post on this.]

Here is another advertisement from The Kilkenny City and County Directory and Guide from 1884 where they are showing off their depots both in Ireland and overseas:

It is probably worth noting too that the Smithwick family do not seem to have owned the abbey itself until quite late on in their story, as according to George Henry Bassett in The Kilkenny City and County Directory and Guide:

The outlook from it is into the yard of Messrs E Smithwick and Sons St Francis Abbey Brewery. In this yard many tablets originally belonging to the Abbey are set into the walls. The Abbey itself with a very choice fruit garden and cottage was sold a few years ago for 600 to the late Mr William Morrissey hardware merchant Mrs Mary Morrissey his widow is now in possession. She has had the floor of the chancel laid with a carpet of living green and takes great comfort in her proprietorship.

So it appears that in 1884 it was not owned by the brewery itself, nor was it part of it by my reading of the above. [Yet again, more on this in my later post.]

Indeed in a meeting of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1868 there was concern for the condition of the tower and the following was said:

The ruins of the Abbey including the tower were possessed by a person who had not the means of doing anything to preserve them. Although they adjoined the Brewery of the Messrs Smithwick, unfortunately they did not belong to those gentlemen - if they did, no subscription would have been thought of, for the work would have been done at once without assistance from any other source. The Messrs Smithwick had most liberally headed the subscription list with a donation of £10 ,and would afford any facility and assistance in their power.

So, generous indeed but not the owner of the abbey...

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There was also a St Mary's Brewery, Coal Market - now Parliament Street - ran by Robert Terry & Sons which he bought around 1862 and was up for sale again just two years later in 1864. What is interesting about this is that it lists all of the equipment in the brewery at the time of sale, such as an eight horsepower steam engine, an O’Reilly’s large refrigerator, a sky cooler and fermenting squares, not to mention 600 casks.

This brewery was being sold by a Thomas Murphy in 1861 under the same name, having been recently renovated²⁰. As a curious aside James Stephens a noted republican and founding member of the IRB was thought to be hiding in the remains of the brewery in 1866 while on the run from the authorities²¹! Back in 1839 the brewery was also for sale having been ran by a John Meighan since 1828²¹. 

There was also a substantial brewery at Newgate being sold as a going concern in 1837, which 'with an additional fermenting Tun' would be capable of producing 10,000 barrels a year²². An Edward Smith and James Innes are brewing 'Ales and Beer' there later in the year. It is called the New-Street Brewery now but is surely the same location²⁶. The partnership was dissolved early the following year, with Smith carrying on the business on his own there after²⁷.

John Street also had a brewery at one time, where a Denis Cormack²⁴ - a surname that appears relatively often in connection with brewing or distilling - was in trouble for letting what was once a brewery (but had been converted into a distillery at this point) end up in a state of severe disrepair. It was described as a 'brewhouse, malthouse, mill and mill-race' when it was leased to a Henry McCreery and John Kinchela in 1786 by an Anthony Blunt's widow before eventually coming into the hands of Cormack via his father of the same name. A brewery in the possession of a Alexander Gray along with a malthouse was being let in 1823 but I am not sure if it was the same premises²⁵. 

Incidentally, according to Halpin⁴ there is a Kilkenny connection with two famous Dublin brewery names as John Brennan, a brewer in partnership with a Cormick⁵ in Pennyfeather Lane, who moved to Dublin when their brewery closed down in 1841 and became manager in O’Connell’s Brewery. His son Charles later bought the business and it became the Phoenix Brewery.

Many of these premises can be seen on the older OSI maps for those who need to pinpoint them exactly, and this is my no means a complete or exhaustive list, but it gives a good indication of the level of brewing in the city in the past.

Liam K.

(Expanded 7/1/2020 & again on 27/10/22)

(All written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without full credit to its source and a link back to this post.)

References:

¹ John Bradley, Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 10, Kilkenny. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2000 (www.ihta.ie), text, page 8.

² Finn’s Leinster Journal – 17/11/1821

³ Lucas’ Commercial Directory

⁴ ‘The Brewing Industry in Kilkenny’, T. B. Halpin, Old Kilkenny Review 1989, pages 583-591

⁵ Shearman’s Commercial Directory

⁶ Kilkenny People – 2/10/1897

⁷ Kilkenny People – 9/11/1895

⁸ Finn’s Leinster Journal – 20/1/1827

⁹ Finn’s Leinster Journal – 7/7/1827

¹⁰ Kilkenny People – 27/9/1985

¹¹ DAR - Section 2 Understanding the site History and Chronology - Draft Masterplan for Abbey Creative Quarter (Former Smithwick’s Brewery and Bateman Quay/Market Yard area)

¹² The Tuam Herald - 10/7/1897

¹³ Saunders's News-Letter - Thursday 9th of March 1815

¹⁴ Kilkenny Moderator - Wednesday 27th of October 1880

¹⁵ Freeman's Journal - Thursday 7th of June 1877

¹⁶ Kilkenny Moderator - Saturday 3rd of October 1896

¹⁷ Carlow Sentinel - Saturday 25th of October 1919

¹⁸ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 9th of April 1859

¹⁹ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 16th of April 1859

²⁰ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 6th of February 1861

²¹ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 10th of January 1866

²² Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 8th of June 1839

²³ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 11th of March 1837

²⁴ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Saturday 1st of August 1846

²⁵ Dublin Evening Post - Saturday 30th of August 1823

²⁶ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 27th of September 1837

²⁷ Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser - Wednesday 10th of January 1838