There's one big surprise in this table. See if you can spot it:
| Estimated beer output in Ireland, year ending October 1849 | |||
| Collections | Bushels of malt consumed | estimated output (barrels) | % of output |
| Athlone | 3,346 | 1,673.0 | 0.28% |
| Bandon | 18,911 | 9,455.5 | 1.57% |
| Belfast | 42,720 | 21,360.0 | 3.55% |
| Birr | 16,122 | 8,061.0 | 1.34% |
| Coleraine | 13,430 | 6,715.0 | 1.11% |
| Cork | 197,932 | 98,966.0 | 16.43% |
| Drogheda | 77,080 | 38,540.0 | 6.40% |
| Foxford | 11,138 | 5,569.0 | 0.92% |
| Galway | 8,772 | 4,386.0 | 0.73% |
| Limerick | 9,627 | 4,813.5 | 0.80% |
| Londonderry | 12,770 | 6,385.0 | 1.06% |
| Naas | 30,809 | 15,404.5 | 2.56% |
| Newry | 34,632 | 17,316.0 | 2.87% |
| Sligo | 8,694 | 4,347.0 | 0.72% |
| Waterford | 58,420 | 29,210.0 | 4.85% |
| Wexford | 39,976 | 19,988.0 | 3.32% |
| Dublin | 620,496 | 310,248.0 | 51.50% |
| total | 1,204,875 | 602,437.5 | 100.00% |
| Source: | |||
| "Statistics of British commerce" by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, page 5. | |||
Unsurprisingly, Dublin comes out on top. Guinness had already started its ascent to world mega-stardom. And Cork, whose two large Porter breweries were almost as famous as Guinness.
But look at Belfast. Producing just over 20,000 barrels of beer. That's shockingly low, considering its size. And that it was the only Irish town to have industrialised. I wonder why that is? Were they imposting beer from England or Scotland?
There's one last part coming up. Where I compare the three countries: England, Scotland and Ireland.
Presbyterian scotch/Irish Temperance in ulster?
ReplyDeleteAn Happy Bloomsday to Ron
ReplyDeleteAny idea what the brewery in Foxford was? Some of my Irish ancestors came from there, it would be interesting to know what they drank.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering why Enniscorthy was not listed but then realised that Letts only opened in 1864.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about Athlone though, I figured there would be a brewery but was not sure.
I don't think Belfast ever did have much in the way of a brewing heritage. They were too busy building unsinkable sinking ships! Even today the closest brewery to Belfast is Hilden which is near Lisburn.
What size was Belfast in 1849? Industrial Belfast is a product of the late-19th century. Harland & Wolff wasn't founded until 1861 and the town didn't get city status until 1888.
ReplyDeleteAnd sure wasn't it full of tee-total presbyterians.
Foxford a small town in Co. Mayo totally at odds with the rest of the country.
ReplyDelete@ Ron. Doing some research to try to figure out which breweries were where in Ireland, I found this book:
ReplyDeleteIreland: Industrial and Agricultural; Department of Agricultural and Technical Education for Ireland, 1902
Search for "Brewing In Ireland"
http://books.google.com/books?id=WAUtAAAAMAAJ&dq=Ireland%3A%20industrial%20and%20agricultural%20brewing&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=Ireland:%20industrial%20and%20agricultural%20brewing&f=false
It looks to be loaded with crunchy, numbery goodness regarding the Irish brewing trade ca. 1900, although the writer is a bit confused about some aspects of the brewing process.
Beer Nut, Belfast had a population of 100,000 in 1851. So already a substantial town.
ReplyDeleteRon would it be possible to normalize the out put to the relevant populations?
ReplyDeleteit may make the situation a bit clearer
Ron, then the prods are the only explanation.
ReplyDeleteThomas, I went and had a look at that book a while back and have some notes from it if you're interested.
There's also some broad research we did on the breweries of Ireland written up here.
Beer Nut, I think I own a copy of the book. I'll have to check.
ReplyDeleteThose prods, eh? What a bunch of miserable bastards.
Oblivious, wait for the final post in the series. That might make things clearer.
ReplyDelete"Those prods, eh? What a bunch of miserable bastards."
ReplyDeleteA they did give us Hillbilly's and a large part of the southerns US history