Concern about the future of Guinness operations in Ireland is acutely felt in Kilkenny, where commercial brewing has been carried on for almost 300 years.
About three-quarters of the 150 staff at the Smithwicks brewery in the old St Francis Abbey took to the picket lines at 8 a.m. yesterday in support of their Dundalk colleagues, as did most of the 40 staff at the Guinness brewery in Waterford.
The Kilkenny picketers, members of SIPTU and the TEEU, declined to talk to journalists, beyond confirming that for many it was their first strike.
Ms Maria Dunphy, the president of Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce, said operations at the brewery, once the city's biggest employer, had been scaled down over the years, and its loss would be a "devastating" blow.
As well as being an important employer, the brewery was a major tourist attraction with a visitors' centre, she pointed out. "The name Smithwicks is synonymous with Kilkenny, and it wouldn't make sense to take that operation elsewhere," she said.
In 1710 John Smithwick revived a monastic tradition by starting to brew commercially.
Mr Philip Funchion, a SIPTU branch secretary in Kilkenny, claimed the company had failed to observe normal industrial relations procedures by "refusing to allow the Labour Court to investigate the dispute about the closure of Dundalk Packaging".
