THE BLUE and silver lights may have been twinkling brightly on the huge Christmas tree outside the mock-Tudor frontage weighing house at Beamish and Crawford last night but the mood was far from festive as news broke of the brewery's closure.
Staff were called to a meeting at the Imperial Hotel at 4.30pm to be briefed on Heineken's plans to shut down the country's oldest brewery.
As workers trickled back to the South Main Street premises, few wanted to talk.
Worker after worker declined to comment when approached for a reaction as they bowed their heads and hurried in through the pedestrian entrance, with some muttering "no comment" and many raising their hands to the side of their heads as if gesturing for privacy.
"Everyone is shell-shocked - just shell-shocked - it still has to sink in," said one employee as she prepared to leave the premises and head off in to the cold drizzly night and face into the bleak prospect of unemployment next March.
Some 160 permanent staff are employed in the brewery with another 40 positions filled on a temporary basis. Forty staff are transferring to Heineken's brewery on Leitrim Street and 120 full-time jobs will be lost.
According to informed sources, about 10 per cent of the workforce would have about 30 years' service, with the average age of those working in the brewery about 40, and many having young families to support and mortgages to pay.
Publican John O'Connor, who runs the Spailpín Fánach pub on South Main Street opposite the gates of Beamish, where many of the staff socialise, said the news had come as a bolt from the blue for everyone. "I don't think anyone saw this coming - I can't understand why a well-established profitable operation like Beamish should be allowed go out of business," he said.