NICCI Magazine

Diners at the Irish Chambers of Commerce in the US annual 'Celtic Ball' in New York had an opportunity to sample a unique 'taste of history' from Killyleagh

Diners at the Irish Chambers of Commerce in the US annual 'Celtic Ball' in New York had an opportunity to sample a unique 'taste of history' from Killyleagh, Co. Down. A taste that includes liquidised shamrocks!

St. Patrick's Gold, a new ale form the Strangford Lough Brewing Company, Killyleagh, was launched at the event, a highlight of the Irish American business community, in New York's Waldorf Hotel. The brewing company was helped by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and industry with contacts that led to the launch of the product in the huge US marketplace.

Strangford Lough Brewing, formed last year by Bob Little and Tony Davies, two successful local businessmen, and already employing 11 people, was in New York on a trade mission organised by the chamber with support from Invest NI's Trade division. The company's range of products is now being distributed in many parts of the US market. The company has also launched a range of ales that reflect Co Down's Viking heritage, particularly Magnus 'Barelegs', an ancient king of Norway who was slain near Downpatrick. One of the ales ' legbiter' is named aster the sword used by the Norwegian invader and is already proving popular across Northern Ireland.

While the company outsources its brewing, it is investing extensively in creative activities such as marketing, branding and design in Northern Ireland. It has been assisted in startup and marketing by Invest NI.

"We are approaching the beer business as marketers, combining quality products and strong brands that appeal to drinkers," says Mr Little. "A strategic focus is on developing business outside Ireland, especially a taste of Ireland's heritage."

"For example, Killyleagh is the setting for one of the most famous poems in Irish History - The Lament of the Irish Emigrant, a tragic story set in the times of the famine in the times of the famine in the 19th century. The poem tells of an emigrant returning to the graveyard where his wife and child are buried. It was written around 1848 about an Irishman, Phelim Magennis, shortly before he left his home forever to sail to what he hoped and prayed would be a better life in America."

Tradition has it that Phelim Magennis came from the Burren district of South Down to marry a Mary McAnulty from Killyleagh. Three years after the wedding, both wife and child died as victims of the cholera of 1848 and were laid to rest in the old graveyard in Killyleagh. Lady Helen Dufferin of Killyleagh Castle met young Phelim Magennis as he sat on the stile taking a long, last, lingering look at the place where his loved ones were buried before leaving Ireland's shore.

That meeting inspired Lady Helen Dufferin to write this famous poem known as 'The Lament of the Irish Emigrant'. It is still possible to visit the stone stile and graveyard, underneath the walls of Killyleagh Castle.

The stile and the graveyard are considered one of the most historical sites in Ireland. In 1995 the Voluntary Service in Belfast restored and preserved the stile and the famous kissing gate. Lady Dufferin, who took a historic walk back in time as one of her ancestors had done before her, planted a tree to mark the official completion of the work to restore Mary's Stile in Killyleagh.