Lecturer in Accounting, Desmond Gibney, who is the programme director of the honours degree in accounting here at NCI, is writing a chapter for the forthcoming Routledge book Accounting for Alcohol: An Accounting History of Brewing, Distilling and Viniculture.
Government proposals to acquire the liquor trade in the First World War: the case of Macardle, Moore and Company, Brewers explores the drive by the British government during WW1 to nationalise the liquor trade in Britain and Ireland. The justification was the impact of alcohol consumption on productivity in the munitions factories and a wish to concentrate on using agricultural land for food production rather than for growing the raw materials for alcohol production.
Research for this chapter led Gibney to discover the very different paths taken by two brothers from wealthy Catholic family, the Macardles of Dundalk, and resulted in a second article: Irish Catholics in Early Twentieth-Century Ireland: the Case of the Macardle Brothers published in the Summer 2018 edition of studies: An Irish Quarterly Review
Thomas Macardle was chairman and owner of Macardles Brewery in Dundalk (Macardles Ale is still brewed by Diageo). Thomas received a knighthood for his services to British army recruitment during the Great War. His daughter Dorothy was a famous historian and writer and also served time in jail for her republican activities.
The other Macardle brother, Andrew, was a Jesuit priest and served two terms as Superior in Gardiner Street. He was renowned for his skills in attracting converts to the Catholic faith. Andrew taught James Joyce in two Jesuit schools, Belvedere and Clongowes Wood, and in fact, sent a seven-year-old Joyce for punishment for the offence of using vulgar language. He makes an appearance as 'Mr McGlade' in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and is not treated unkindly by Joyce.
Gibney's article deals with themes of the loyalty of Irish Catholics to the British Crown and expands on Fergus Campbell’s study of the ‘Irish establishment’ around the time of the First World War.
These two very different articles arose from the same research starting point.
"Some great advice I received from my regular research partner Professor Martin Quinn of DCU," said Gibney, "is to try and ensure that any research work results in the research output of at least two publications."
Irish Catholics in Early Twentieth-Century Ireland: the Case of the Macardle Brothers can be purchased via studiesirishreview.ie.
Accounting for Alcohol: An Accounting History of Brewing, Distilling and Viniculture will be available in all good bookshops from August 2018 or directly via routledge.com
