29.10.15
Heard of Bang Bang from The Liberties? You must have! Now there’s a beer named after him!
A fan of cowboy films, Thomas Dudley (his birth name) used to travel around Dublin and The Liberties staging mock shoot-outs with passing strangers (hence the catchy nickname) who often “fired back”. He carried a large church key in his pocket which he used as a ‘gun’. He died in 1981 but is widely remembered by some of the older Dubliners, especially in The Liberties where he remains a local legend.
A resident of Mill Street in the Coombe, Bang Bang has had a bar named after him at the Teeling Whiskey Distillery on nearby Newmarket. Now there is even a beer named after him – Bang Bang Dudley Red Ale. Brooklyn-based Sixpoint Brewery has partnered with Teeling Whiskey to release the collaborative new brew. Billed as an Irish-style red ale, the beer is matured in wooden barrels that previously stored Bourbon and rum, and were later used to age Teeling’s Small Batch Irish whiskey. Sadly the beer will not be made available in Ireland, but will see limited draft released throughout the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Bang Bang’s spirit lives on in the #SpiritofDublin.
