The St. James Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland . Photo from the Guinness Web site.

Just uncovered this little missive about Guinness from the AP wires. The good news is that Diageo Corp., the drinks conglomerate that Guinness created, has decided not to close the history St. James Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland.

Bad news is there are layoffs, much production is being moved to a big plant outside Dublin and half the brewery site’s gonna be sold for “private development.” Gee, maybe there’ll be a Denny’s, a McDonald’s, and Bed Bath and Blah. Can hardly wait…

Guinness owner brews Irish layoffs, closure of breweries

By The Associated Press

Friday, May 9, 2008 - Updated 21h ago

DUBLIN, Ireland - Guinness beer owner Diageo PLC rattled an Irish icon today, announcing plans to lay off more than half of its brewery workers, close two breweries and shift most production to a new, high-tech plant in the Dublin suburbs by 2013.

The British beverage maker decided not to close the landmark Guinness brewery, one of Dublin’s oldest businesses and a top tourist attraction, after concluding this would do too much damage to its brand image and customer sentiment.

Diageo expects to lay off about 250 people, or 58 percent of its current brewery work force in Ireland, over the next five years. Brewing staff at the Guinness brewery at St. James’ Gate in west Dublin will be slashed to 65 from 230.

Half of the riverside St. James’ Gate site will be sold for private development, and the volume of Guinness brewed there will be cut by about a third — to about 500 million pints annually. This will exclusively supply the Irish and British markets, where demand has slipped over the past decade in line with pubgoers’ diversifying tastes.

David Gosnell, Diageo’s managing director of global supply, said the move to a new suburban mega-brewery was necessary to compete with the rise of lower-cost breweries in Eastern Europe, Russia and China.

“The business is hugely competitive. … Smaller breweries are consolidating and closing in Western Europe,” Gosnell told a news conference inside Guinness’ panoramic Gravity Bar, which offered a 360-degree view of a mist-shrouded Dublin… READ MORE

Back to me…So I went to the Guinness site and found this from the company about St. James Gate, the brewery:

The GUINNESS® story begins at the St. James’s Gate Brewery, a prime 64 acre (25 hectare) slice of Dublin. It’s always been our spiritual home - now it’s a citadel in its own right and a haven for millions of visitors to The GUINNESS® STOREHOUSE™.

Our birthplace is a living, working space. The focus of our commercial life, GUINNESS® from St. James’s Gate is shipped all around the world including the UK and the USA. We welcome guests from all corners of the planet.

Amen.