Molloy’s & Guinness: 155+ Years Poured Into One Relationship
Walk through our doors at 59 Talbot Street and you’re stepping into a living thread of Dublin’s brewing story. Thanks to the Guinness Archive, we can now trace Molloy’s trading relationship with St. James’s Gate all the way back to 1869. More than a century and a half of orders, deliveries, and pints poured with pride.
Guinness Ledgers
A ledger, a label, and a long memory
Recently, the Guinness Archive team shared a gem from their collections: a trade ledger entry for Dr. Thomas Molloy, 59 Talbot Street dated 1887, recording the year’s Guinness sales to our account. In the top-left corner of the first page, a note reads “1869”, denoting the earliest year associated with Guinness sales to our premises. They also uncovered a Molloy’s bottle label from September 1940, the kind used when pubs bottled Guinness themselves. Together, these finds confirm what our regulars like to say: we know our Guinness.
When Dublin pubs bottled Guinness in their cellars
Before centralized bottling became the norm, Guinness shipped stout to pubs in wooden casks. Dublin publicans, Molloy’s included, bottled in their own cellars, applying house labels rather than the brewery’s main trademark design. It was a hands-on craft: clean the bottles, fill them from the cask, cork them by hand, and send them out to customers with your name on the label.
Guinness began introducing its trademark oval label in the 19th century (first issued in 1862 and later trademarked in 1876) to protect the brand—especially overseas—while still supplying labels to local bottlers. That’s why you’ll find a mix of house and trademark labels in the historical record, including our September 1940 Molloy’s label.
Cellar bottling carried on far longer than many imagine. Archival footage and reporting show Irish publicans were still bottling Guinness on premises into the 1960s, hand-corking bottles before crown caps finally took over. By the late 1960s, centralized, brewery-controlled packaging became standard, ending the everyday ritual of bottling stout in the back room.
Why the switch?
Bottling in-house gave pubs autonomy and local character, but it could also introduce variability. Not every cellar handled sanitation, corks, or conditioning exactly the same way. Over time, Guinness moved to tighter quality control and consistency, which meant bringing bottling under the brewery’s umbrella.
What the 1940 label tells us
That 1940 Molloy’s label says a lot in a small oval:
It places Molloy’s among the Dublin pubs trusted to bottle their own Guinness.
It captures a moment when pubs could put their own name and address on bottles, a common practice for local bottlers supplied by St. James’s Gate.
It connects our bar counter to a unique chapter of Irish brewing logistics that shaped how generations of Dubliners enjoyed their stout.
Pouring the past into the present
From the 1869 start date in the ledger margin, through 1887’s neatly penned sales entries, to a 1940 label printed for cellar bottling, Molloy’s has been on first-name terms with Guinness for over 155 years. That continuity matters. It’s why our staff mind the details of every pour, and why regulars argue (affectionately) about the sweet spot between settle and sip.
Next time you’re in, raise a glass to the ledgers, labels, and the long road from St. James’s Gate to Talbot Street, a road we’ve walked together since the 1860s.
