Last call after 300 years in city

BY the time the famous St Francis Abbey Brewery in Kilkenny reaches its 300th birthday in 2010, activity will have all but stopped following yesterday’s Diageo announcement.

The shutdown, and loss of 93 jobs, will be complete within five years, bringing an end to a tradition which stretches 49 years further back than St James’s Gate Brewery.

Reaction in the historic city yesterday — where the Smithwick’s brewery once employed more than 300 people — was a blend of sadness, disappointment and resignation, although the news didn’t come as an outright shock.