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I'm from Carlow myself, but have not uncovered a brewery in the county, other than today's one. There is a reference to a brewery existing at the site of Carlow Town Hall in a 2005 Carloviana. I have these journals at home some place, and will dig it out.

This is the thing about trying to use the First Edition maps as a primary source. It's impossible to scan the whole country. Well, not impossible, but it'd take weeks. Having even a hint that one existed in some town or village means we can target that area and see if it was marked, so the location it at least confirmed. THis is why Lewis was a great start, as he covered a huge area, just not much detail.

Otherwise, documentary sources are the next level. With an address we can map it fairly precisely, but without we can just plot a point that lets map users know there was a brewery documented there, but we don't know where exactly. It'll all pull together in the end <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

I'll look around Carlow tonight!

This is a fascinating thread that I have only just managed to find time to read through as work has been taking over my life of late. The time Adeptus and others have put into this is staggering well done lads.
To chip in my two pence worth I know there were 2 breweries in Ballina Co. Mayo as mentioned strangely enough in the history of the Ice House <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.icehousehotel.ie/ice-house-history">www.icehousehotel.ie/ice-house-history that has been recently converted into a swanky new hotel. Also I have a distant memory way back in the mists if time that the Foxford woollen mills were built on the site of an old brewery. Both leads should be fairly easy to follow up locally and I will get to it in the next few weeks.

It is interesting to note that very few if any breweries survived in the smaller country towns past about 1900? despite what must have been considerable transport difficulties especially here in the West.
When I first visited from my native England I was amazed to discover a complete lack of local brewing in Ireland. Over pints of Dublin brewed Guinness I have often questioned why this was? The most plausible answer among many witty quips was that locals always preferred to drink something special from *up in Dublin* than the local brew which they “probably put rats in it”
So it seems the quality of locally brewed beer as mentioned further back in this thread may not have been up to much. <!-- s:cry: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cry.gif" alt="" title="Crying or Very sad" /><!-- s:cry: --> Although this project is hugely interesting in its own right the holy grail for us brewers must be to get our hands on old recipes and reproduce some of the stuff with Rats and vitriol in it. <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

&amp;quot;Westbrew&amp;quot;:1ijxm53q wrote: the holy grail for us brewers must be to get our hands on old recipes and reproduce some of the stuff with Rats and vitriol in it. <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->[/quote:1ijxm53q]And then get totally rat-acid.

&amp;quot;Westbrew&amp;quot;:1ijxm53q wrote: locals always preferred to drink something special from *up in Dublin* than the local brew which they “probably put rats in it”[/quote:1ijxm53q]I love this. Never underestimate the power of Irish begrudgery.

Last year, Laurent from EBCU said[/url:1ijxm53q]
[quote:1ijxm53q]you'd be surprised to see how guys in their 40s or even 60s, who've drunk the very same beer ever since they were allowed to enter a pub, can switch to sth else if they feel there's a good reason to. Such as the beer being brewed down the road by a guy they've seen grow up in the village.[/quote:1ijxm53q]I think the rat response is a much more plausible scenario.

[quote:3hznp280]And then get totally rat-acid[/quote:3hznp280]

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Adeptus's grand plan to keep me out of the pub on Friday lunchtimes had me down in Pearse Street library this afternoon checking a directory of Wexford from 1885.

(Michael Wickham's Wexford Brewery has two addresses: South Main Street and Crescent Quay. The latter is specified as the grain store, with grain for sale, so I assume that the former is the brewery.)

The best bit in these directories is always the ads, and I saw lots for local merchants advertising that they bottled and sold beer from Guinness's, Bass and Alsopp's. Not a single one mentioned touching anything from the Wexford Brewery.

Rats and vitriol, I tells ya.