I'll have a large Clotworthy please!

Spot the lobster.

We missed the ferry this week - however we were able to spend a few hours in Dublin and we spotted a freshly carved wood sculpture in St Anne's Park, Raheny (see the sawdust on the ground.) Just take a closer look at the photo and note the amazing detail. We eventually arrived home 10 hours late courtesy of the big late night ferry which was full of smiling Africans and Eastern Europeans - and guess what? Holyhead passport control had all gone home to bed! Whilst in Northern Ireland (where I watched Northern Ireland beat Ukraine in the footy on TV!) I ran in the Lisburn Half Marathon with our George tootling round in a little over 2 hours. Lovely course out into the countryside and we finished just after 9 pm feeling very thirsty.

Ireland, North and South, is synonymous with Guinness and there is not much else. However in the last few years a number of enterprising microbrewers have set up business. They are almost entirely absent from bars and pubs however as Guinness have some sort of monopoly, but there are plenty of bottles in the shops as you can see from this fine selection:

Not Guiness but something else!

See the beer on the exteme right - Clotworthy is an Irish surname and Mr Clotworthy was an accomplished brewer in the early 19th century in Belfast. Much later Brendan Dobbin was another pioneering Irish Brewer whose wonderful beer was sampled by us on his premises nearly 30 years ago in a dodgy housing estate brewpub in Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester. This was where we came across his piece de resistance, Yakima Grande Pale Ale - Yakima Grande Pale ale was a supremely hoppy pale ale first brewed in the early 90s at the now defunct Kings Arms pub in Chorlton on Medlock by Brendan Dobbin of West Coast brewing, formerly designer of the Firkin brewpubs. The beer was way ahead of its time with very high hopping levels being heavily influenced by the North American microbrewery scene.   

And according to Wikipedia: Most Clotworthys have emigrated to other countries round the world, many to America. There are very few left in Ireland.

I wonder why?