William Barry visits Ballyshannon....
Less than 3,000 people live in Ballyshannon in Co. Donegal. It’s the birthplace of musician Rory Gallagher, and also Hazel Blair, mother of the former British PM Tony, and it’s also the birth place of the Donegal Brewing Company.
Publican and off-licence owner Brendan O’Reilly could see the way Irish tastes in beer were evolving and, after years of planning and learning and aided by expert brewer Bernard Sloan of the Whitewater Brewing Company of Co. Down, he set about building a microbrewery in the beer garden of his landmark pub, Dicey Reilly’s.
The first brew of their flagship Donegal Blonde was ready in time for Christmas week 2012 and since then the brewery has been stretched keeping up with demand for the delicious liquid. They are expanding their capacity threefold after just twelve months, to allow them service more customers and brew new styles of beer.
Brendan’s family have owned Dicey Reilly’s pub in the town for 39 years and, after Brendan returned from college, he set about looking for ways to set the business apart. When a premises next to the pub came for sale he brought it and converted it into an off licence. His wife, Sinead, learnt the wine business and Brendan set about learning about brewing beer through courses in the BrewLab in the University of Sunderland as well as in the Porterhouse in Dublin. Their independent off-licence has won several awards and offers the best selection of Irish and world craft beers I have seen anywhere, including beer from other Donegal breweries such as Kinnegar Brewing and Muckish Mountain Brewery. Supermarkets nearby offer swill and plonk at knockdown prices but customers still come to Diceys because they know they can get quality beer and interesting wine with expert advice.
The O’Reillys are the kind of people who will keep country towns alive over the next few years. They take an active role in promoting Donegal, coach tours visit the brewery for organised workshops and tastings, and sample the town’s other offerings.
They adapt to the times, they take risks, they create products, they employ people across three businesses. It’s great to see breweries opening and thriving in places like Ballyshannon but the fact that of the nineteen (yes nineteen!) pubs in the town only one stocks the local beer shows that many publicans have a long way to go towards helping their communities and themselves.
