More than a Glass, Less than a Pint - Getting the Measure of the Irish 'Meejum'

Kerry Evening Post. - Wednesday 11 September 1889

In October of 1960 a London visitor to the west of Ireland felt aggrieved enough to write to the Sligo Champion* to complain about what amounted to a short-pour-of-a-short-pour of Guinness. His issue was that while in Claremorris (Mayo) the usual drink of the locals was a 'medium' of stout and that 'the Claremorris "medium" is filled out in a pint tumbler and is nearly filled to the top' for 10d but later in his trip he was rather annoyed that while visiting Sligo town he was served his "medium" in a half pint tumbler which had 'a "collar" on it of about three-quarters of an inch' and for which he was charge 6d - poor value to his mind and more importantly either the concept of 'The Medium' was either unknown in Sligo or someone was trying to pull a fast one on this canny visitor. He also has some barbed comments regarding Sligo pubs in general, calling them 'drab affairs [...] badly lit up and badly in need of modernising', and goes on to complain even more about the 'Collar' on all sizes of Guinness poured there, being particularly perturbed by a one inch head on a pint of Guinness...

But let us return to the 'Medium', or 'Meejum' (sometimes even 'Maejum') as it is often pronounced but rarely written. Any readers who were up to now unfamiliar with such a measure will probably have grasped the concept from the Londoner's description above. It was what would now be considered a short-pour 'pint' of beer where a pint glass was not quite filled to the top. Nowadays it's mostly talked and reported about in connection with one particular establishment, Johnny McHale's pub in Castlebar - again in Mayo - where up to quite recently at least you still order a meejum of Guinness and where they have almost claimed it as their own, but what is the history of this measure and when, why and where did it begin?

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I think most of the older history of the 'meejum' is lost to us, as it was something that was rarely advertised and probably only discussed verbally for many years, but thanks to a few newspaper mentions - many times in court cases - I can hopefully fill in a couple of blanks in its story. (I am going to be a little erratic in my own use of medium or meejum throughout this post, depending on actual usage I am reporting, and my poetic needs...)

The first mention I can find is in the Kerry Evening Post in 1889, when two men involved in an altercation had gone into O'Connor's public house in Tralee and called for two "meejums". The court report doesn't tell us the beverage they consumed but at least it pushes it back to the late nineteenth century, and how it was mentioned makes me think it was a common enough term, especially as there were questions regarding its legality from at least 1892, which seems to imply it was an long-standing practice - more on this later.

There are many more - in 1895 according to the Cork Constitution a woman who was in 'the habit of throwing tumblers' allegedly struck a man with a "medium" of porter, and in Nenagh, Tipperary, in 1901 a Mrs. Corbett was fined for selling 'a jug with two mediums of porter in it' outside licensing hours, (It is curious how the constable who witnessed the breach could tell the volume of liquid in the jugs, unless medium in certain cases just meant 'measures'.) and there is a mention in Limerick too.

Next we see a medium of ale in Roscrea, and mediums of stout in both Kerry and Cork again, and also in Louth in 1904; back in Cork we have mention of a jug containing a medium of porter and another story involving 'three mediums' of porter, plus a drowning victim in Kerry who had drank a medium of porter all in 1908; it gets mentioned as a 'medium of ale' in Offaly, and mediums of porter are still in Cork and Kerry in 1910; we see a first mention for Galway - 'medium of beer' - plus Kerry and Tipperary get mentions in 1911; Kerry and Tipperary yet again in 1912, and also Cork where a women was accused of  concealing four mediums of porter 'in two vessels' under her shawl, and in the same year I came across a report that mentions a medium of ale in Callan in Co. Kilkenny, and in Galway a woman admitted that 'she got too many mediums of porter'; in 1916 Kerry and Drogheda get a mention - the latter for a 'medium of ale' and the following year in 1917, we finally see a Sligo comment, both for mediums of stout; 1917 is also the first year I can find where it is discussed in Dublin, as due to trade restrictions it says that in rural towns 'the retailers are also following the Dublin policy of  'only serving glasses or "mediums" [their quotes] of porter or stout, where hitherto the popular pint was the measure in request.'; we are back in Offaly in 1924 and in Tipperary again in 1928 with mediums of stout; in 1938 we see a second Sligo mention with a medium of porter; then mediums of stout in Tipperary in 1944 and Sligo in 1958 then a final mention until the modern era in Wexford Town in 1963.

There after the word crops up only very occasionally, more often than not just very recently and with the McHale's pub connection I mentioned above.

As I am sure you can appreciate, looking for mentions of 'meejums' in newspapers is hardly an exacting scientific study as to the origins of the word but taken at face value it would appear that the term originated in the southwest of Ireland. Perhaps beginning in Cork or Kerry in the late 19th century before moving into Limerick and Tipperary, and drifting or jumping to other regions as the years went by, then retreating back to just a few locations - or even pubs - by the second half of the 20th century.

(Incidentally, the word 'meejum' is rarely used in newspapers, it is almost always 'medium' in articles although I would imagine that this is down to the reporter in many cases translating the almost Hiberno-English word into 'proper' English.)

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So, how much beer was actually in a meejum? The simple answer seems to be a little less than a pint as per the comments from our annoyed Londoner above, but I have come across a couple of others mentions of the volume too. In a court case in Dundalk in 1904** the judge has the same question and was told it was 'a glass and a half' (426ml) and another mention in 1901 that says it was 'two-thirds of a pint' (379ml). A more recent comment from a letter to the Irish Independent in 2003 looking for the medium to be reinstated, it is said that it was 'approximately 500ml'.  With a pint being 568ml we can see some wildly fluctuating volumes here, but I think we are missing the original point of the medium, which was to give the consumer a drink based on price and not volume, so therefore it is very possible that a medium was a different size in different counties - and even different pubs. It was a portion of beer that equalled a value that was acceptable to the working man.

Something that throws a slight spanner in to the workings of this idea is the fact that we have specific medium glasses mentioned from time to time, even if the first example almost backs up my argument.

In Cork in 1892*** there was an 'Important case which interests all publicans in the city' It was an appeal by Jeremiah Lucy against 'a penalty for selling porter in a vessel popularly known as a "medium" which the authorities alleged was not under the denomination of any stamp of the Board of Trade standard, and consequently its use was in contravention of the Weights and Measures Act of 1878.' The defence cleverly argued that the glasses were not supposed to hold a certain volume of porter but a certain value and therefore did not come under the Boards remit and that asking 'for three-half-pence of porter was like asking for a pennyworth of tobacco which was not a quantity recognised by law.' The judge appears to have sided with the defence that 'the measure was a customary one and did not come under any Board of Trade standard' ... but then says that this actually made the measure illegal.

As early as 1896 we have a raid on publicans in Cork by and inspector who, under the Weights and Measures Act, confiscation many medium glasses from almost everywhere he called. The same article goes on to say that 'the medium was abolished years ago as an illegal measure' and that 'in some houses he seized about sixty measures.' Illegal or not, its use seems to have been rive up to this point and well beyond in the city as we have seen. (Note that the sergeant was dressed in a bicycle costume as a disguise!)

 Freeman's Journal - Tuesday 03 March 1896

In the advertisement below we have John Lyons in Paul Street Cork selling pint tumblers, half pint tumblers and 'medium ale glasses' in 1901.

Cork Examiner  Thursday 17 January 1901

Below we have the condemnation and warning of the 'Medium' in Limerick where there were 'prosecutions instituted against a number of publicans in the city for using a glass called a "medium", which contained two-thirds of a pint. This was illegal, as the police could not stamp such a measure,...' The J.P. says that the practice was general and he knew of publicans who had got in two dozen glasses recently.

Freeman's Journal - Tuesday 22 October 1901

In the Midland Tribune in 1912 there was a case regarding a publican from Templemore who was fined for having six glass measures in his possession for use which were not of Board of Trade Standard (unstamped). The inspector who visited the premises claimed the publican said he used the glasses for selling mediums of stout. The publican said he used to 'sell mediums of porter for which he used to charge 1 1/2d' but no longer did and just used these glasses for bottled drinks, which did not require them to be stamped, as those drinks were premeasured. Inspector went on the say that the publican had claimed at the time of his visit that he sold more mediums than pints. The publican then claimed he was given conflicting information as to whether he could use them or not by policemen but was still fined.

An American publication called 'Daily Consular and Trade Reports' from 1914 mentions in some detail the glassware available in Ireland and specifically in the Munster areas with a view to American suppliers muscling in on the glass import market. Here are the relevant paragraphs ...

'Daily Consular and Trade Reports' - 1914

You can see that there were huge amounts of all types of glasses being imported into Cork and although not all would be destined for the pub trade a large percentage would be used in those establishments. The shape of the 'Medium' is interesting as it mentions 'bell-shaped' - plus that they were 'three-quarter pint' - and that they were made from thinner and better glass, and were sourced from the continent. A cheaper rougher version had recently been sourced from Belgium.

An interesting mention in the excellent Beamish & Crawford - The History of an Irish Brewery by Donal Ó Drisceoil and Diarmuid Ó Drosceoil was brought to my attention by Cian Duffy, where it was argued by Richard Beamish (speaking in 1925) that it was not a brewery strike in 1920 but rather the development of the 'meejum' in Cork 'before the First World War' that had allowed Guinness to get a shoe in the door of Cork pubs. Guinness was selling at 2½d a pint while the local brews sold at 2d a pint, so customers asked for - and were given - 2d worth of Guinness, and so the 'meejum' was born. It is an interesting point of view but as we saw earlier the term itself goes back to before 1889, so it was in use well before the time suggested by Mr. Beamish. Seemingly, he had asked the Inland Revenue to investigate the matter in 1909 but nothing became of it.

So, as we can see from all of these mentions that an actual 'medium' glass did exist, although nowhere does it give the exact volume and this raises the next point - the legality of the 'medium' glass. The issue then, as it is know as far as I know, is that any glass size is legal as long as it has been verified by the appropriate body to contain the volume being stated as sold, so the issues above were not with the glass as such but that it was not possible for them to be verified because there was no way of doing so (as it was an unconventional beer volume), whereas now we can have a multitude of sizes and sell them accordingly, as they are all verified with appropriate CE marks. (I am very prepared to be corrected on this!)

Perhaps this is also why those glasses disappeared, as it was much easier for the publican to serve a short measure in a pint glass than suffer the wrath and legal machinations of the Board of Trade. So the 'meejum' became a short-pour pint, but still based on price by my estimation and backed up somewhat by the Beamish reference above. Also, from all the cases and mentions I have mentioned above - and I am sure there are more - the governing bodies seemed to turn a blind eye to the practice for a long time apart from the odd crackdown as we have seen.

Maybe the bigger question is should the 'meejum' make a comeback universally? Something similar is already around in certain bars, especially those of a crafty persuasion, who sell their drinks in various volumes depending on the strength and the price, which is akin to what the meejum was I think.

Perhaps we have come full circle in one way? Although I am not convinced that asking for a meejum in most bars in this country would get you much more than funny looks ...

Liam

(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 source and a link back to this post.)

Newspaper images © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive  -www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk  - where most of the information I've complied here was sourced.)

* Sligo Champion - Saturday 08 October 1960

** Dundalk Examiner and Louth Advertiser. - Saturday 28 May 1904

*** Cork Daily Herald - Monday 10 October 1892

Another Historic Irish IPA and Mild Ale Sighting - Nugent's Brewery, Drogheda, Co. Louth

I've become somewhat obsessed with historic Irish ales in recent times, and although the world and the marketeers in the larger breweries - plus some smaller ones - seem to be focused on the quasi-legendary 'Irish Red Ale', my focus is on something paler and certainly less well-known. Those who follow me on Twitter have been afflicted by my tweets on the subject from time to time but when I spotted an advertisement for yet another historic Irish IPA (I've found many at this point.), with a Mild thrown in for luck, in The Drogheda Conservative in 1866 it seemed liked something I should commit to a blog post.

Back in the day - early to mid 19th century to be precise - Drogheda Ale was well known and lauded by many, including William Makepeace Thackeray who wrote in 1842 that it was both a ubiquitous and 'praiseworthy' ale. A voice closer to home a decade later, John Francis Maguire, even goes as far as to say that Drogheda Ale, along with Cork Porter and Dublin Stout, was 'well known and highly appreciated outside Ireland.'

Indeed in May 1866 the following article appears in a Drogheda newspaper...

Our ancient town is justly famous for many things in the manufacturing line, but in no branch has it obtained so wide celebrity as in the brewing of ale. No ale made in any establishment throughout the united kingdom bears a higher character, or is more deservedly prized, than that produced in Drogheda. Hundreds of thousands of casks are exported annually the sister kingdoms, to America, India, and the continental countries ; and the high estimation in which the beverage is held is sufficiently indicated in the fact that demand far exceeds the supply. But Drogheda, until few years back, confined exclusively the brewing of sweet ale, which established a solid reputation for strength and purity wherever they obtained a footing.

It's nice to see in writing that an Irish Ale - not a Stout or Porter - is so widely exported and held in such high esteem, even if we do take writeups like these warily given they were written 'in house', so to speak, by locals.

I suspect that most of that ale was brewed by Cairne's Brewery on the south bank of the river Boyne, the site of which is now - depressingly - a shopping centre, and probably some from Casey's on West Street and Stockwell lane in the centre of town too - perhaps some of the beer from Castlebellingham up the road was also included under the general term 'Drogheda Ale'. (I'm not sure about this, as their ales were normally flagged as 'Castlebellingham Ales'.)

But back to my latest find, and the first mention I have of this establishment, known as Mell Brewery, is when it was in the ownership of Symes & Co, who were advertising strong and mild ales from 1861. The brewery was situated on the north bank of the river Boyne at the western end of Trinity Street in Lower Mell on the outskirts of the town of Drogheda. They went into liquidation in 1863 although some retailers were still advertising ales and table beers under the Symes & Co name up to 1865...

By 1865 the brewery was under new ownership with Messrs. Nugent & Co at the reins and there cunning plan was to brew something different to their competitors - India Pale Ale. In 1866 the following advertisement appears in a local newspaper.

As we can see they are brewing an India Pale Ale and a Mild Ale and here we have our old friend Charles Cameron popping up yet again to give us his opinion on them, with the IPA being 'brilliant, sparkling and of a most agreeable flavour' and 'equal to the best specimens of Burton-on-Trent Ales...' If we take it at face value then it is high praise indeed but the mention of Mild Ale is in one way much more interesting as it once again highlights that Ireland did brew Milds. Cameron's remarks it being 'free from nauseous sweetness' and that it includes a high percentage of alcohol, the former statement giving us an insight perhaps into what Drogheda ales et al were like at this time and the latter reinforcing that Milds aren't always low in alcohol. (By the way, other ale types were being brewed in Drogheda before this time, as Casey's were brewing sweet, bitter and table ales in the 1850s.)

There are more newspaper write-ups around this time with one mentioning that pale ales were a new venture for Drogheda and that the local brew, up until this point at least, was quite sweet - so perhaps the famous Drogheda ale was a sweet, strong and maybe darkish? Maybe amber? Maybe even ... red?

Anyhow, the articles go on to wish the company well in the future and hope that Drogheda Pale Ale becomes as famous as its older darker, sweeter sibling.

(If you want to dig a little deeper into the attributes of Drogheda Ale, specifically Cairne's version, Ron Pattinson has an analysis of a talk about it given in 1862 here.)

Incidentally Mell Brewery and Messrs. Nugent also appear to have brewed a stout, which I'm assuming was a stout porter, which was also available in 1866 when they looked for a brewery agent in Falmouth in England to sell both it and their ales, plus they had agents in Dublin and Belfast. They also mention 'Sweet Ales' as being available and that they 'will bear favourable comparison with any in the market.', which smacks of hedging you bets if you ask me ...

Unfortunately the venture appears to have been short-lived as by 1868 the various Nugents are selling off all of the loose brewing equipment as they are 'retiring from the business'. This seems quite odd as they were only in business such a short time so either something major happened to said Nugents or the business wasn't the success they hoped it would be, and the retiring comment was just to save face. For whatever reason the hope of Drogheda IPA emulating the gravitas of its counterparts across the Irish Sea was not to be and sadly both it, their Mild Ale and the rest of their production faded from the brewing history of Drogheda and Ireland.

The building and site don't appear to have been used as a brewery again as by 1869 it was being used as a cavalry barracks and was up for sale on a number of occasions until 1884 when the actual brewing equipment itself was put up for sale. By at least 1885 it was owned by Patrick Casey Connolly, the then owner of Casey's Brewery in the town, who had turned it into a maltings by 1890.

(I have read a few sources that claim Casey's were brewing on the site and one that says that Casey's moved all of their brewing to here. All I can say is that I can see no record of this and Casey's were brewing in town up to the early 1900s, having refurbished the premises there between 1888 and 1890 . They could have course used it as an auxiliary brewery at some point but I have not come across anything that proves they were.)

Here's an OSI map published around 1870 which still shows the brewery buildings and the site, the hexagonal structure is a 130ft chimney. The presumably repurposed brewery structure beside it is likely to be an 1834  flax mill owned by Thomas Ennis - the original occupier of the site as far as I can make out - and it was 4 storeys high according to a description when it was auctioned in 1858.

In 1926 the long vacant site was reopened as a clothing factory, which means it may have almost turned full circle from its beginnings in the flax trade.

Liam

(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 source and a link back to this post.)

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive  -www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk  - where most of the information I've complied was sourced.)

Map County Louth : Drogheda : sheet 7 is by OSI via UCD and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

D'Arcy's Dublin Extra Stout Label

(Newspaper Page © The British Library Board)

Trawling though a few old newspapers online I came across the below advertisement for D'Arcy's Brewery in Dublin in the Sport (Dublin) newspaper from 1896. I was quite take by the facsimile of the label for their Dublin Extra Stout - complete with anchor - so I cleaned up the image a little a decided it was worth posting here.

It's a nice piece of Dublin brewing history, I wonder has anyone got the real thing?

Liam

(Newspaper Page © The British Library Board)

(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 source and a link back to this post.)

Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk). 

More Non-Intoxicating Drink: Hovenden & Orr - St. Stephen's Brewery, Dublin

(Image is Courtesy of Dublin City Library and Archive)

A mention of an establishment called 'St. Stephen's Brewery' piqued my interest in a previous post about The Dublin Hop Stout Company, as prior to that I had only come across a brewery of the same name in Waterford.

It turns out that the name was also used by a company called Hovenden & Orr, which was established in 1892 at 131 St. Stephen's Green (although the proper entrance seems to have been off Glover's Lane), almost opposite the main entrance to the park. Messrs. Hovenden and Orr seem to have previously worked for Thwaites, the better known mineral water manufacturer, before setting up their own company making soda water, lemonade, ginger ale and 'medicinal' drinks with names like Lithia, Kali, Potass. (In advertisements from this time they also make a point of stating they were the only manufacturer to use glass lined tubing instead of the usual lead or tin for their pipework - no lead poisoning is surely something to promote!) There is a small image of the enterprise in the corner of the poster at the top of this post. It appears to be in an inner courtyard shown on an Ordinance Survey map from around this period.

They start to advertise their Hop Bitters in 1895 and this is also their first use of the word 'Brewery' (sitting above their address) in any advertisements and in 1897 they first use the full title of 'St. Stephen's Brewery'. I can only think that they used the name to add a little legitimacy to there hop bitters at this time, especially given the competition I reference in the above mentioned post. They are brewing Ginger Beer as well as Hop Bitters in 1900, along with their core lines of soda water and other mineral waters, and a 'Dublin Ginger Stout' appears in 1905, but these are all under the Hovenden & Orr name alone. All of their production over the years seems to be of non-intoxicating products.

The St. Stephen's Brewery name, which they appear to have dropped in 1898 reappears for an advertisement tied to the Irish National Exhibition in 1907, perhaps because they had a separate stand for their Hop Bitters and a Dublin Brown Ginger Stout at the showcase and again wanted to give it more of an air of legitimacy. I can't find the brewery name being used mentioned after that point.

Advertisements seem to run with just the Hovenden & Orr name from then on, and the main company name seems to disappear when they merged with a number of other Dublin mineral water manufacturers in 1927.

The whole enterprise probably warrants a longer look, more research and a bigger post at some point in the future.

Liam

(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 source and a link back to this post. All original photographs are my own and can not be used elsewhere without my consent.)

The rights to the poster image is held by Dublin City Libraries (www.dublincitypubliclibraries.ie) and from whom I've received permission to reproduce here.

Newspaper images © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk). 

The Red Cow Inn - A Carlow Merchant's Token

© The Trustees of the British Museum

From stumbling around in the local history of pubs, taverns and inns I'd previously come across mentions of The Red Cow Inn in Carlow, but by chance today I came across this photograph of a related merchant token on the British Museum website (plus a second one shown below). It is from 1657 and was struck for a gentleman call John Masters who seemingly owned said inn in town, the site of which wrapped around the corner of Dublin Street into Tullow Street in Carlow, excluding it actual corner itself.

I had first come across the coin as mentioned in Carlow: The Manor and Town, 1674-1721 by Thomas King and a previous online dig brought up a more detailed commentary in On Merchants' Tokens Struck in the Towns of Carlow, Bagnalstown and Tullow published by Robert Malcomson in 1869, so it is a well known black and white woodcut image to local historians but I'm unsure how many people have seen a photograph of it in the virtual flesh, so to speak.

It reads 'JOHN MASTERS 1657' and '1 D' (1 Penny) on one side and 'IN CARTHELOUGH' [sic] and an image of a horned red cow on the other. It was made from brass according to Malcomson.

John Masters was 'portrieve' (portreeve) of Carlow -  a kind of high-ranking town official - again according to Malcomson, and we know from Thomas King's book that Masters owned the Red Cow Inn, so although that looks a bull like I'm pretty sure it's meant to represent a cow.

I wonder did Mr Masters also have a brightly painted or carved sign with a red bull hanging from his premises? I would like to think so...

Liam

Please note this image is © The Trustees of the British Museum and shared via Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) from The British Museum website. please don't use it without proper attribution and a link back to my site if you've found it first here.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

The Dublin Hop Stout Company - Temperance Brewing in the late 19th Century

On a Sunday morning in January 1896 there was a freak accident at no 45 Stafford Street in Dublin, when an unfortunate individual named William J. Keogh tumbled out of the open and unprotected upper storey window while coming down a stairway and fell 25 feet into an internal courtyard while allegedly, and  ironically as we shall soon see, under the influence of drink. A company called the Hop Stout Brewery was named as owners of the building at the inquest into his death and it was suggested by the jury that said company might consider the unfortunate wife and child he left behind after poor William's later demise in Jervis Street hospital from brain damage compounded by a broken back and fractured limbs. A verdict of accidental death was recorded an no actual blame was attached to any party.

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A company brewing non-intoxicating drinks is not something that many people would associate with  late 19th century Dublin but the above mentioned brewery was just such a producer, it origins beginning in 1892 when the following advertisement appeared in Irish newspapers.

______________________________

THE DUBLIN HOP STOUT CO.,

LIMITED. 

Beg to call attention to their now non-intoxicating Beverages.

Barrett's Dublin Hop Stout,

     The only true non-intoxicating Stout. The most nutritious temperance drink yet made. Equal to Dublin Porter without the alcohol. Brewed from the finest malt and hops.

Barrett's Dublin Hop Porter,

    This beverage is similar to the article imported by English firms under the name of Hop Stout, but is superior in flavour and appearance.

Barrett's Dublin Hop Bitters,

    A Bitters of the type in greatest demand in the South of Ireland. Delicate in colour, of tonic quality, and brewed from the purest ingredients obtainable. The only Hop Bitters of Irish origin gaining Honours at the recent Brewer's Exhibition.

Barrett's Dublin Hop Bitter Ale,

    The nearest approximation to a Burton Dinner Ale yet brewed without intoxicating qualities, and possessing the same invigorating and tonic properties. Not so sweet a Hop Bitters, and preferred by many for this reason. This article is unique.

     This Company was the only firm of Irish Temperance Brewers awarded a Medal at the recent Brewers' Exhibition.

      The above Beverages cannot be surpassed in price or quality.

AWARDED A GOLD MEDAL AT THE EXHIBITION, DOUGLAS, I.O.M., 1892.

      For Samples and Terms apply to

STAFFORD STREET BREWERY,

DUBLIN.

______________________________

Here we can see that The Dublin Hop Stout Company (or Stafford Street Brewery) were brewing a whole range of beer-like products in the form of a 'Hop Stout' that they claim is the equal of Dublin porter and a 'Hop Porter' which is, confusingly and contractively, similar to an 'English Hop Stout', as well as 'Hop Bitters' - a drink which I've written a little about before - and finally a 'Hop Bitter Ale' that's allegedly close to a Burton Dinner Ale.

These kind of drinks weren't new of course, they had been around before as both imported and domestic products, driven in a large way by the various temperance movements that waxed and waned over the years. Canny brewers trying to survive in difficult times spotted a gap in the market and switched to them or other business people seized on the mood of the day to set up new companies, something that would be repeated in prohibition America a few decades later in even more trying circumstances. I have a few labels in my own collection and there are plenty of more examples out there.

 

The Stafford Street Brewery stood on what is now Wolfe Tone Street (It was renamed in his honour as he was born in number 44.) The brewery and stores were at number 47 and 48, although the brewery owners also held the leases for numbers 44, 45 and 46 so they owned what was Wolfe Tone's home at one point. Today most if not all of the site is occupied by an insurance provider in a modern, characterless building, but there is a photograph of the street from around this time in the Lawrence Collection on the NLI site. Sadly it only catches number 44 and a little of 45 as well as others on the south end of the street but it gives a feel for the area and the buildings as they were at the time.

I have found a plan of the brewery in a Goad Fire Insurance Map from 1893, which shows the layout and also incidentally the courtyard where the unfortunate Mr. Keogh fell into at number 45. You can see the offices, cooperage, fermentation room, the brew house, washing room and laboratory on various floors around a central covered courtyard. It seems to be a fairly tidy setup with access via an archway to Stafford Street.

The brewery was originally conceived and set up - with the help of others - as a side project by William G. Barret who operated as a drink importer and rectifying distillers, hence the "Barrett's" names on the drinks. Some time after 1894 he left that company to return to his own business at 25-28 Great Strand street, not very far away from Stafford Street, where he traded as W. G. Barrett and Co. He lived in Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) where he became chairman of the local council, and appears to have been a well liked and philanthropic individual. He died there in 1908 and is buried in Dean's Grange according to his obituary, he even has a small street named in his honour in his home town.

The company continued to brew and produce its drinks for a number of years afterward, although judging by the constant comments in advertisements at this time regarding its alleged superiority over its imported competitors - presumably Wheatleys, Gilmours, Kentora and others - it appears to have been under a fair degree of pressure. If we add to this existing local producers of stouts and other beer-like products such as Shank's and Egan's, plus the emergence of a number of new non-intoxicating drinks around this time like those from Hovenden & Orr at St. Stephen's Brewery, the market was becoming over saturated in non-intoxicating drinks, although it does reinforce just how popular these drinks were at this time. 

The brewery (A portion of which is pictured above and the boiler shown is also noted in the inner courtyard in the map above.) employed twenty men in 1896 and one newspaper article claimed it could employ two hundred if  'the working men of Dublin [would] patronised the home manufactured article' instead of imports. In fairness the brewery and its management appear to have been very much pro Irish produce and they tried to source as much as they could from within these shores, the barrels they used were all made in Dublin and the manager was a prominent member of the Irish Industrial League. They were even known to put 'Erin go Bragh!' [sic] - which roughly translates as 'Ireland Forever' - on their advertisements in the newspapers of the day

It's interesting to note that these beverages were all sold as 'non-intoxicating' drinks more so than 'non-alcoholic' and many certainly had some alcohol in them, as they appear to have been brewed in a similar way to normal beers, at least up to a point. I have come across a letter from the secretary of the Dublin Hop Stout Company to the editor of the Cork Constitution newspaper that says their products leave the store with a little over a half of one percent alcohol, which over a long period in poor conditions might reach over '2 per cent proof' due to it being a bottle conditioned product that continued to ferment. This is an important find as it shows that at least some of these drinks certainly contained a certain amount of alcohol. (This letter was referencing an earlier article where it was deemed that their 'beer' could not be sold by an unlicensed trader as a tested bottled had exceeded the 'two percent proof', another important point as this shows us the threshold of what a licenced versus an unlicensed trader could sell at this time.)

Given their low alcohol and presumably arrested fermentation one would wonder how these drinks compared taste-wise to the intoxicating products they were trying to replace. Articles and advertisements from the day including an entry in a catalogue for the Isle of Man exhibition mentioned above say that their stout (the product they appear to have launched first) is:

'Brewed by the Dublin Hop Stout Co., Limited, non-intoxicating, resembling Dublin stout in appearance and flavour. It is a true beer, containing the same ingredients as ordinary porter; no cane sugar or other foreign materials are used at any stage of its manufacture. It has as high a gravity as any Dublin porter.'

This is of course written, like the advertisement above, by the manufacturers themselves so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. If you want to take Sir Charles Cameron from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin's word (and I'm not saying you should) about their hop stout, he says in an advertisement from April of 1892 that it:

"EXACTLY resembles Dublin Stout in appearance.'
"Has a PLEASANT flavour."
"Consists of Carbohydrates, Albumenoids, and other DIGESTIBLE substances"
"is NUTRITIOUS"
and that

"The agreeable bitter principle which it contains is derived from HOPS ONLY"

[Capitalised words are as per advertisement]

In a note from the Distillers' and Brewers' Exhibition held in Dublin in 1894 the reporter mentions meeting Mr. Barrett on his 'artistically arranged' stand and being impressed by the stout saying that he was hard pressed to tell it from an intoxicating stout from the large Dublin brewers and that he felt it was a much superior product to similar ones imported from England. So it does appear at least to have been made without any strange adjuncts and be quite a drinkable product as many other reports reiterate.

Sadly it appears that tastes changed and these kinds of drinks began perhaps to fall out of favour with the Irish public, and certainly that market saturation by too many producers jumping on the band wagon didn't help, and by December of 1896 it was in liquidation and up for sale as a going concern along with the leases on the other properties surrounding it.

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But that's not the end of the history of this brewery site as by May of 1897 it appears to have been bought and reopened as the Irish Crown Brewery Co. Limited with a similar strapline regarding supporting home trade, and selling hop bitter and hop stout. In August of that year they even launched a non-intoxicating 'Hop Lager' - Surely a first for Ireland if not further afield? - using pure Vienna hops and Irish malt, exhibiting it at the RDS horse show that year. They even get a mention for their flag display on Stafford Street where the procession stopped to admire the newly erected plaque on number 44 for the Wolfe Tone commemoration in 1898. (The plaque is still there by the way, just on a different building.)

But perhaps all is not as it seems for this new brewing company, as in August 1898 a writ of summons is issued against them by a Commercial Traveller who was seeking to recover the not inconsiderable sum of £71 10s 6d for money he alleged to have paid on account for the defendants, or more accurately their predecessors the Dublin Hop Stout Company. The plaintiff then alleged that the current directors of the Irish Crown Brewery, with one exception, were the same as those of the Dublin Hop Stout Company and therefore they were liable for the debt. The defendants denied all allegations and claimed not to know the plaintiff, which certainly seemed odd, and they won their case.

Also in 1898 the company was trying to raise money by selling one hundred £1 debentures bearing 5% interest so it seems like they were quite hungry for cash, but this appears to have not helped their financial woes as in July 1899 a solicitor for the 'Trustees for the Debenture Holders' of the company looked for tenders for its purchase as a going concern and lists the premises as 46, 47 and 48 Stafford Street, saying that a receiver has been appointed. It appears that no buyers were found as a compulsory winding up order was issued on the 20th of the month and any creditors or person from company were asked to attend a hearing if they opposed said winding up.

The hearing didn't exactly go smoothly with the solicitor for Messrs. Leechman and Cownie (who you will notice operated as stationers and printers in number 42 and 43 Stafford Street in the NLI photo referenced above.), judgement creditors for the company, claiming that the new brewery 'had been a bogus company from start to finish' and that some of the assets had vanished in recent days. The company was in voluntary liquidation and it was agreed that no more assets should be removed from the premises. There was and adjournment and at the next hearing it was said yet again that the business had been carried out by the same persons regardless of the change of name and that the Dublin Hop Stout Company had 'incurred liabilities and disappeared', then the present company had formed, again perhaps implying something nefarious.

It's all a little complicated given all the legal-speak but it seems to be that Leechman or Cownie were owed money from the brewery and wanted to force a compulsory liquidation in order for them to get that money but the business was already in voluntary liquidation anyway, owing a great deal to creditors, whose money for most would never materialise. At the next sitting the Master of Rolls dismissed the petition for that compulsory liquidation. It appears that most of the other creditors favoured the voluntary liquidation anyway, perhaps hoping to get something from the process, although it was alleged again that assets were being removed and 'wasted'.

The bigger issue raised yet again was the nature of the change from one brewery to another, where it was implied that the business in reality just changed its name in order to renege on its debts but continued with practically all the same people at the helm, which was first alluded to by our Commercial Traveller above. (Most of this can be read in the Irish Independent - 15th November 1899)

It appears that no investigation was carried out into the activities of the brewery - or breweries - and the final nail in its coffin is a small notice in the Dublin Gazette at the end of 1902 saying that the Irish Crown Brewery had been struck off the register and dissolved.

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So ended perhaps a little ignominiously a bold venture and although maybe there were some shady dealing nothing seems to have been proved regardless of the allegations. It does raise questions as to how well or not the company was run but if we want to end on a positive note we might just say that perhaps, just perhaps, they were a century ahead of their time.

By the way, we never do find out if poor William's widow received any money from the owners of the original brewery, but the cynic in me thinks not. I can't help but think that had he partook of the drinks brewed a couple of doors up then he would possibly have lived another few decades and survived the brewery itself.

Liam

(I have purposely omitted the names of any of those directly involved in the companies apart from Mr. Barrett, as that was a given and he seems to have gotten out without any tarnish to his reputation.)

(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 source and a link back to this post. All original photographs are my own and can not be used elsewhere without my consent.)

Newspaper images © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk). 

Map image via Wikimedia Commons