Guinnesses Adventures in Pub-land: Murtagh Properties Limited

I've written before about the paucity of tied houses in Dublin (but they did exist, despite many writings that they didn't go beyond Cork); and also have a list of Dublin's bars that are either brewpubs, taprooms, or owned by a brewery. 

A name you don't see on those articles, except in its brand home / tourism functions, is Guinness. Guinness never operated tied houses in Ireland; or in the UK - but they did own pubs, and even offered contracted management services for bars elsewhere. 

These pubs were run directly by Guinness (well, a group company - more later). I'm not aware of any pubs being built new - all the pubs were bought - and the management services seem to have been a later addition (edit: I had initially misinterpreted the pub in Shannon as being a bar in Shannon Airport; and forgot to edit this bit of the text)

This article is going to give some of the history of this, and will list all their pub operations I've discovered in Ireland - not just those in Dublin as would normally be the limiting factor.

The "why" behind Guinness doing this isn't something I can explain, as there is no obvious purpose - these pubs continued to sell drink by other breweries. But I'm going to make two guesses anyway.

That it was just an investment opportunity in a business they understood is possible - the pubs were operated by a subsidiary company, Murtagh Properties (a company that later renamed to Guinness Storehouse Limited), founded in 1963 and dissolved in 2019.

Additionally, some of their early purchases are in areas where the Guinness brand may not have been particularly strong - former Macardle Moore / Great Northern strongholds and Cork, which still had its two independent breweries at the time. Some influence over the market may have been desirable here, even if the pubs were not tied houses.

Murtagh first turn up in the newspaper archives in July 1966, as the licensee for the Crossroads Tavern near Shannon Airport. This may not have been their first endeavour, as articles by January 1967 refer to them as already owning Cherrytree in Walkinstown - which they retained until the very end.

Newspaper reports cited 12 pubs in ownership by 1970, 6 in Dublin and 6 outside. This figure of 12 gets referenced a lot as if it was a static number, but there were sales and purchases along the way.

The Murtagh Properties company was also used to acquire other business, such as the bottling operations of SV Delahunt of Wicklow in 1971. Guinness acquired many of its larger bottlers as it moved away from independent bottling, and some of these sites still exist as regional depots for Diageo to this day. Murtagh seems to have been used as a holding company for these, as it is also mentioned as owning the Connacht Mineral Water Company in 1985.

They were also involved in a court case in 1971 against the Barmans Union (INUVGATA) to try prevent pickets - pickets placed against the employment of women! This court case eventually lead to that ban being overturned, as detailed in my article on women behind the bar. It should be noted the pub companies were doing this as they could still openly pay women less than men, rather than out of feminism...

In 1972, they made a rejected bid to buy the JG Mooney pub chain; with the Belton pub chain and Bank of Ireland's investment division as partners. Mooneys and Beltons eventual demise is documented elsewhere here. 

Undeterred by that - or, probably, just doing it at the same time anyway - they bought a controlling stake in two Northern Irish pub chains, Croft Inns and Magills, for £1m in late 1972 - giving them 22 pubs and hotels in Northern Ireland. These were not under the auspices of Murtagh Properties, but are worth mentioning as part of the overall picture.

The Dublin pubs were generally vast premises, but the Cork pubs were often quite small. One, Kealys, was on a side-street which no longer exists; and was sold off relatively early (1976) to a new owner, who also bought out the original Murphys leasehold, for it had once been a tied house of Murphys. The Kealy family that sold it moved to Dublin.

The number of pubs slowly fell over time - albeit they continued to buy pubs or take on management contracts until the early 1990s; and also spent considerable money on upkeep. There are constant planning notices for extensions or changes, and the management of the firm were quoted as stating that publicans should make continuous, small spends on improvements. The firm also entered the occasional/temporary bar market, today a speciality of the Madigan Group.

Eventually, their interest in this business reached the end of the road in the Republic in 1998, when the remaining three properties were put on the market. They also prepared to hand back their management contracts for the bars at the students unions in Maynooth and UCD at this time. The final licence transfer notice, for the Clonsilla Inn's new owner, is published in 1999.

The Northern Irish arm of the parent firm continued to buy pubs until at least 2000 but appears to have exited the market by 2002. Brewery involved in pub ownership, or at least control of licences, is still strong in the Northern Irish market, so it is understandable that they may have wanted to hang on there for longer.

List of ROI premises with known years (pubs may have been in Guinness ownership earlier and/or later than these - sold refers to a known sale date):

Dublin:

S1478 Cherrytree, Walkinstown - 1967 - 1998 (sold)

N0758 Clonsilla Inn, Clonsilla - 1970 - 1998 (sold)

1008947 Liffey Bar Eden Quay - 1972 - 1989 (sold) (now the Wiley Fox)

N0120 Sheaf of Wheat, Coolock - 1966 - 1998 (sold) (now the Cock and Bull)

N1125 Youngs, Ballyfermot - 1969 - gone by 1981 

S0241 O'Byrnes, Rathmines - 1970 - before 1990 (sold) (now Graces - a trade dispute here that made it to court seems to be a frequently referenced case)

S1536 Dohertys, Harolds Cross - 1973 - gone by 1990 (latterly Rosie O'Gradys and since demolished)

S0173 Searsons, Baggot Street - 1991 - 1996 - (held the lease, not ownership)

Management:

S0056 The Bailey, Duke Street - 1990 - 1995 (contract ceased when Brown Thomas sold the building)

SU bar, UCD - 1992 - 1998 (returned contract)

Trinity Ball temporary bar - 1992 - 1993

Elsewhere:

Crossroads Tavern, Shannon - 1966 - 1996 (sold)

Lisdoo Arms, Dundalk - 1966 - 1968 (sold)

Marlboro, Marlborough Street, Cork - 1967 - pre 1994

John J Barry, 2 Pembroke Street, Cork - 1967 - pre 1985

Market Tavern, Angelsea Street, Cork - 1970 - 1993 (sold)

Top Of The Hill, Gurranabraher Cork - 1972 - 1993

Kealys, Faulkners Lane, Cork - 1972 - 1976 (sold)

The Mountain, Cork - 1972 - 1980 (gone by 1985)

Management:

SU bar, Maynooth - 1994 1998 (returned contract - Murtagh Properties lent £350k towards construction in return for this contract)