If there is one still-existing beer brand that elicits a wave of nostalgia when mentioned in certain company it’s Macardle’s ale. The ‘Large Mac’ from the shelf, or the cooler depending on your tastes and the weather, has a small but important cult following, who against all odds seem to be keeping the ale alive and stocked in certain bars and off licenses across the country, with a bias towards north Leinster sweeping down towards the southeast of the island. The draught version appears to have vanished entirely from the pub counter even in its literal homeland of Dundalk, gone the way of the Small Mac and the six-pack of dumpy half-pint bottles. Now this once well-known and important brand is only offered in a pint bottle, and by default is normally served with a half-pint, trumpet-shaped pilsner glass. Along with bottled non-nitro Guinness, it is the default choice for many drinkers who prefer the fuller flavours of microbrewed beers and find themselves in a pub in Ireland which only stocks ‘The Usual’ line-up of taps serving the somewhat anodyne output of larger breweries. In its current form Macardles is a well-carbonated, amber coloured ale with a pronounced bitter hop bite and a relatively decent malt aftertaste. It would be difficult to compare it to any other ale currently available in Ireland, so it’s perhaps best described as being somewhat reminiscent of a throttled back English bitter, especially when served at ‘shelf’ temperature and from a fresh-brewed batch.
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Like most Irish mainstream beers, Macardle’s has been reduced to a brand owned and produced by a multinational corporation, but the brewery history behind the name goes quite far back, and was once a huge part of the now-lost brewing history of the island. The history of most Irish breweries can be quite complicated and the origins are often lost and muddied by oft-repeated errors and marketing-friendly white lies, but looking back at the early period when our brewery was called Macardle, Moore & Co., and using as a starting point an advertisement for the enterprise which was published as a part of The Freeman’s Journal’s series on Irish industries in June 1920, a short, early history and status of the brewery can be gleaned. The headline over the full page advertisement read ‘A Famous Irish Brewery’ and it also included some images of the brewery buildings and workings which sadly didn’t print too well at newspaper quality, so are not too noteworthy here. The advertisement states:
The firm was established by the late Mr. E. H. Macardle [who] took over, jointly with the late Andrew Thomas Moore […] an old brewery, carried on in the Napoleonic era by Duffy, Plunkett & Co. and afterwards by Jas. Mc Allister. [The] brewery was established in Dublin Street, Dundalk, but it was subsequently transferred to Cambricville, where the industry is now carried on in the most pleasant surroundings, the windows of the vat room, for example, looking out over a wooded demesne. Cambricville was originally a Huguenot settlement, where the exiles carried on the manufacture of Cambric, according to the processes which had made Cambrai famous. The De Joucort family founded the industry in 1740.
Although a good starting point, this is a somewhat succinct history of the business, and we might need to delve into other sources - mostly newspapers from the period of the brewery’s birth - for clarification, especially as any dates and details seem a little scarce in the above piece.
In 1860 or possibly the year before, Edward Henry Macardle entered into a partnership with John Charles Duffy to greatly improve the existing brewery on Dublin Street in Dundalk. John C. Duffy had probably owned the brewery along with other family members - James and Arthur Duffy and his uncle Patrick Wynne - since at least the early 1830s, and perhaps prior to that it was owned by Patrick Wynne alone. After John Duffy’s death in 1863, Andrew Thomas Moore, a cousin of E.H. Macardle, became his partner in that enterprise on Dublin Street, and so started Macardle-Moore reign as brewery owners in (and just beyond) the town.
Meanwhile, the brewery at Cambrickville, just outside Dundalk but quite close to the Dublin Street brewery, was possibly set up c. 1804 by a Simon Loraghan who is named as living at a house on the brewery site when it is up for sale in 1807, the brewery was ‘only three years at work’ at that time according to a newspaper advertisement. (Modern references to the brewery mention that this was the site of an earlier brewery in the 18th century owned by a William Stuart, of which there is no mention in commonly available sources from this time. Mr Loraghan may have had nothing to do with the brewery and may have just been a caretaker for the site, or an agent for its sale. Plus the 'three years at work' could refer to a rebuilt brewhouse on the site.) A James Duffy and Edward McAlister are later in partnership - with others - at the brewery up to 1822 when the partnership appears to have been dissolved. This was around the same time that a bankrupted Richard Darley lost his share in the venture, having seemingly surviving a similar fate in 1816 and 1819, when it was noted he was a quarter partner in the brewery. (This may have been just a protracted delay in resolving the issue of his bankruptcy, and it would be of interest if Richard Darley was related to Henry Darley who had a brewery in Stillorgan, and Bray, in the 19th century but that seems difficult to prove.)
A James McAlester (the surname spelling seems to vary) was running the brewery there alone from 1824 when the partnership called Duffy, Plunkett & Co. comprising of McAlester, John Duffy and Patrick Plunkett was dissolved, although it appears Plunkett had already left the business in 1821. The enterprise was known as ‘Cambrick Ville Brewery’ at this time. McAlester was still brewing there in 1846 according to Slater’s Directory, although four years earlier in 1842 barley, brewing utensils as well as furniture and livestock was being sold at an auction to pay off some debts, and the brewery was certainly unoccupied by the 1850s as referenced by council records in newspaper at this time. So Slater’s may have been listing it as an existing brewery structure even though it was not currently in production.
But in 1863 it was being advertised to be let, had been completely refurbished and was in ‘first rate order and repair’ after a ‘considerable sum’ had been spent to bring it up to working order, with applications to be made to the owner James McAlester, according to an advertisement late that year. As well as the brewery itself, there was an onsite malt house with 8,000 square feet of flooring that was capable of producing 300 barrels of malt weekly. A substantial 6-bedroom dwelling house with a parlour, drawing room and library was also included in the letting. So all in all an impressive site.
In late 1865 the partnership of Macardle, Moore & Co. agreed to buy (or let) the brewery from McAlester, with advertisements for its sale at this time particularly noting the quality of its water for brewing ‘pale long keeping ales.’ The brewery appears to have begun production of ale and porter there in 1866 with the plan at the time to keep both breweries in operation, but it appears that the Dublin Street brewery closed soon afterwards. Malting continued at the Dublin Road site for a number of years, with the old site being called ‘the old brewery’ in newspaper mentions into the early 1870s. It should be noted that the spelling of the new brewery has now changed to Cambricville Brewery, although the spelling does seem to vary through the years.
The article from 1920 continues:
The Firm has also a number of modern maltings and branch grain warehouses, where the grain is stored and subsequently transferred to the brewery, where there is a branch line and siding which connects with the Great Northern Railway system.
One of these maltings, which is in Dundalk, is known as the Butter Crane Maltings, because it was used as a storehouse for butter and bacon and other Irish produce during the Napoleonic Wars, when the British Government drew a large portion of their supplies from Ireland.
[…] the stout and porter and ale brewed in this famous Dundalk Brewery have achieved a national reputation, and the firm are now extending their connection right through the country, and are appointing agents where not already represented. Their beverages have long been in great demand in Army canteens at home and abroad, and the directors believe that their products have only to be tested to command the widest approval and support.
The piece goes on to emphasise the ‘purity and wholesomeness and really palatable flavour’ of its beverages, and although it reads very much like the advertisement it is, it certainly shows the importance of the brewery at this time in Ireland, and - like most Irish breweries - how it brewed a range of beers, not just one product, from its earliest time on Dublin Street, in fact it won a medal at the Irish Exhibition of Arts and Manufacturing in 1882 for its porter, not its ale as is sometimes reported. The military connection mentioned above was a huge part of their business, as was an export trade, and as were their tied houses in Dundalk and surrounding area, with some being as far away as Belfast. It was one of the best know breweries in the country for many years before - after some changes in ownership and being turned into a bottling plant with minimal brewing - it finally closed in 2001.
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But what of the last remnant of this brewery’s drinkable history? The last remaining format, the pint bottle with its red, white and black label showing the words ‘Macardle’s’ along with ‘Premium Quality’ and ‘Traditional Ale,’ a label which is less than iconic but more than just plain familiar to many drinkers. The one on the back of the bottle states ‘Originally brewed in Dundalk in 1863 with the finest raw materials of Irish grown barley, hops, water and yeast. Macardle’s is known for its distinctive flavour which is often described as nutty in character by ale aficionados’ and interestingly that first sentence could apply to the 1863 beer or the current one, depending on how you interpret it. It is also proclaimed it to be 4.0% alcohol by volume, and the name of the brand owner and current brewer, ‘Diageo Ireland, St. James’s Gate, Dublin 8’ also features here.
Prior to the current rebrand, which occurred in two steps in the mid-1980s and which focussed on tradition and quality, the labelling featured the term ‘No. 1 Ale’ prominently on its bottle labels and caps. Advertisements in the 1960s read ‘Number one for quality. Number one for strength. Number one for flavour,’ and that byline regarding its strength goes right back to the early 1920s when it was being advertised as ‘Macardles No. 1 Strong Ale.’ This was when it was being first advertised under the ‘No. 1’ ale in newspapers and there is even an implication that it was a new brew with advertisements stating that ‘every effort is being made by [the brewery], by using the choicest material, regardless of cost, and the best skill in manufacture to produce an ale second to none’ (1923) and that the brewery ‘was glad to note that our efforts in producing this famous ale have been so highly appreciated by the public’ (1926). This could be just down to interpretation but it could be read as being a new product at this time.
Regardless of the date it first appeared, a look at this ‘No. 1’ ale from its advertised traits in the 1920s through to its current, renamed form appears to flag something amiss. Even in a country that had barley-wines at 5.5% alcohol by volume in the second half of the 20th century it is highly unlikely that a 4% ale would be called a ‘strong’ ale, as Macardle’s No. 1 was in the 1920s and 1930s, nor could it be beer of ‘strength’ as it was promoted as during the 1960s, which hints at a recipe change, or perhaps just a dumbing down in alcohol from this period. ‘No. 1’ ales were generally the strongest of the ‘normal’ ale output of a brewery. There appear to be no brewing records available for public viewing for Macardle-Moore but we can look at a brew that was made by them in 1911 to mark the kings visit which had been supplied to soldiers at the time and was probably around 5% abv or more based on an advertised original gravity of 1.053. This was a 'Pale Bitter Ale' originally supplied to troops so possibly not their strongest-brewed effort, and although this is a decade or so before the ale called ‘No. 1’ appears it would seem unlikely it would be weaker than it. For reference, down the road in Drogheda, rivals Cairnes were brewing their eponymous Cairnes ale (which is listed in early brews as a ‘No. 1’) in 1928 to 5.5% abv and Perry’s in Rathdowney had an XX ale in 1933 that they marketed as a ‘No. 1’ ale which was also 5.5% according to brewing records available for those breweries. (And that is without mentioning the English brewed and hugely popular Bass No. 1 ale.) All of this would make one assume that the Macardle-Moore ‘Strong Ale’ was at least this strength, or possibly a little higher in alcohol, and perhaps – like some of those mentioned from other breweries - it fell slightly through the 1940s and 1950s before eventually dropping by the 1980s to the now 4% abv. (The quotation about the increase in ale prices at the very start of this piece implies that No. 1 ales were stronger and more expensive too.)
Both of the ales mentioned above from Cairnes and Perrys were pale ales, as no caramel, dark malt or roast barley appear to be used in them at this time. Bass and Smithwick No. 1 ale were also pale ales so it is certainly more than possible that Macardle's No. 1 was also a pale ale at this time, although without access to brewing records we cannot be sure, as there were certainly some darker ales available in Ireland in the past.
For reference, in the mid–to-late fifties the brewing output of the brewery was Macardles No. 1 Strong Ale, Macardles Export, as well as their brewing Double Diamond. The latter being pasteurised and filtered, and the others appearing to have been bottle conditioned, another small if significant change from the present day, according to a newspaper report that mentioned its bottling of other ales too.
Also of note is that in the 1990s the recipe was said to included flaked maize which was unlikely to have been used in earlier brews (although not impossible of course), and if this beer dated back to 1863 then it would certainly not contained such a fermentable as Macardle-Moore took out advertisements in newspapers in the latter part of the 19th century where they were at pains to state their porter and ales included just barley malt and hops (Pacific hops at times!), along with water and yeast. This inclusion of maize would also hint at a reformulation at some point, perhaps in the 1980s when the newer branding and the dropping of the ‘No. 1’ occurred.
Lastly, a presentation given to The Old Dundalk Society in 2019 contains a slide regarding the head brewer Bernard Rodgers, who was head brewer from the 1920s until 1952 claims he was the 'first brewer to brew Macardle Ale.' Unfortunatley no further information is given.
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The question is whether, as is claimed on the bottles, it is the same ale – or any ale - that was brewed in 1863, presumably in the Dublin Street brewery as it could not have been brewed in Cambrickville.
This seems highly unlikely, if not impossible.
Although, ‘Traditional’ is one of those word that means many things to many people, and so it could be argued that it was brewed traditionally with a base at least of hops, malt, water and yeast.
But the barley variety and how it was malted will be different, as will the hops – and they are probably in pelleted form. The mash and brewing regime have probably changed and been curtailed, and perhaps the yeast and water profile are different – although the latter would be the easiest to replicate. The colour of the beer has possibly changed too, darkened to fit in with the false ‘Irish Red Ale’ history. The beer is no longer bottle conditioned as it was in the past, and lastly, we can see that the alcohol amount has also probably changed. It may be roughly based on a recipe from 1863 but it’s difficult to track a continuous unbroken path to the present for such a beer.
But, it may certainly be the beer that was brewed in the 1980s in Dundalk, and perhaps fifty odd years is tradition enough?
Liam K
There is more information on the Macardle Historical Society website here, including the presentation and slide mentioned above. New information is being added all the time.
There is a wonderful collection of aerial photographs of the brewery from 1956 here on the NLI site.
(Newspaper references available on request.)
Please note, all written content and the research involved in publishing it here is my own unless otherwise stated and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without permission, full credit to its sources, and a link back to this post. Newspaper research was thanks to The British Newspaper Archive and the Macardles beermat image is from the author's own collection. The Cairnes' brewing record mentions is held in The Guinness Archive and the Perry's records are in the Portlaoise local studies department of the local library. DO NOT STEAL THIS CONTENT!
