A tradition moves - Here’s to the next 400

ONE of the great advantages of being from the Southern capital is that if you are beaten in the football there is still the hurling. Latterly, if you were beaten in both there is, most of the time anyway, the rugby too.

This widely-indulged fantasy of natural superiority was encouraged by the pleasure of being able to choose between three kinds of porter — Guinness, Murphys or Beamish — a wealth of choice unimagined in most of the country.

Thankfully, after 400 years of brewing on the same site, that luxury will continue as Beamish & Crawford’s new owners, Heineken, will continue to produce Beamish at their Lady’s Well brewery just across the city.