A comprehensive history of beer in Ireland is something I’ve been hearing demand for for as long as I’ve been paying attention to the local industry. It has finally come into being thanks to the specialist Irish food and drink publisher Nine Bean Rows. The author is Ireland’s foremost scholar of beer history, Dr Christina Wade, whose blog, Braciatrix, has been exploring beer history in Ireland and abroad since 2017. Christina’s approach to the subject is an explicitly feminist one, and that theme continues in this work.
That’s not to say that women’s place in Irish brewing history is a forced or tacked-on idea. For most of the story, brewing is women’s work, part of household management. It’s noted that in some of the historic domestic texts under scrutiny that the basics of brewing are not set out: this was fundamental knowledge, passed from mother to daughter in Irish kitchens for countless generations and across all social classes.
The story begins at the very start of written Irish history, in the early medieval period. The particular role of feasting and hospitality within society is explored, referencing the legendary poems and song-cycles and moving on to the archaeological evidence for the high status accorded to drinking ale and mead among both the elite and commoners.
Following on from the Gaels, we come to the Viking invasions of Ireland, and an exploration of how that culture merged with the native Irish, adopting their customs of feasting and funeral rites. (As an aside, there’s a highly enjoyable debunking of the myth of the “Viking funeral”.) The Vikings also established Ireland’s first cities, and with them came the first pubs. We follow how domestic brewing and the selling of surplus household ale gave rise to commercial brewing, first on an ad hoc basis and then gradually becoming a more established practice, leading to the establishment of inns and taverns in the urban centres. When Ireland falls into the sphere of English influence, there’s discussion of the differences in both the beer and the pub types between the two countries: some early modern sources, not for the last time, lauded the English pub as the Platonic ideal and the Irish ones as an inferior class with ideas above their station. That’s a debate which has yet to be settled. Interestingly, Ireland’s lower population density helped slow the spread of bubonic plague in the 1300s, which in turn slowed the professionalisation of brewing as a trade.
Those familiar with the streetscape of Dublin will enjoy how it is conjured here, particularly Winetavern Street, of course, and the general neighbourhood of Christchurch Cathedral. This was once a hive of brewing and drinking activity for all ranks of medieval and early modern society, stomping ground of the so-called Filthy Queens of the title — at least in an Englishman’s assessment. A brief discussion is given to Dublin’s purported oldest pub, The Brazen Head, suggesting a possible origin date in the 1500s but not confirmed in existence until well into the 1600s: considerably more recently than the pub claims today.
The 1600s is where we start to see commercial brewing as we know it taking shape. In 1673 Dublin had at least 100 breweries, contending both for custom and for the city’s precious water supplies. The records relating to this have proved to be an excellent historical source for tracking the development of the industry in the capital. Although no reason is given for the continued popularity of porter among Irish drinkers, we get lots of detail on how it got here: beginning as an import from London, followed by local production being heavily encouraged by the authorities through the 1700s as a means of developing Ireland’s economy and agriculture. We learn about many of the breweries who benefited from the porter boom, in Dublin, Cork and beyond — not just the famous names, but the smaller operations, preserved in wills, leases and commercial directories of the period.
The book finishes in the 19th century, including the Famine’s effect on the brewing trade, its position in the growing Irish nationalist movement, and a precis of Alfred Barnard’s gee-whiz account of Ireland’s notable breweries in the late 1880s.
As one would expect from the author, everything is thoroughly referenced and indexed, with plenty of jumping-off points to original sources and the work of other historians. While it’s a densely-packed 185 pages, it’s told throughout with good humour, narrative flair and more than a few laugh-out-loud moments. I’m sure there are many more aspects of Irish brewing history which are worthy of their own books, but this one provides an excellent framework for the overall story from the early medieval to late modern period. There are fascinating people, places and events on every page, and you will never think of lasagne the same way again.
Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland by Dr Christina Wade (ISBN: 9781738479528) is published by Nine Bean Rows on 30th January 2025. It is available to order, priced €20.
