McConnell's Brewery and Distillery stood on the edge of the River Lagan on Belfast's Ravenhill Road. Dan's Row or Dann's Row, which still remains, ran down one side of the site.
Built in 1899, McConnell’s Brewery Ltd. was also known as the Cromac Brewery. In 1922, the brewery launched a new brown ale, aimed at the working-class drinkers of the city suffering with widespread wage cuts. It retailed at 6d a pint.
We have put this beer on the market to endeavour to meet the general fall in the workers’ wages, so that they can obtain a real good nourishing and stimulating drink at a more reasonable price.
Belfast Telegraph – 23rd May 1922.
Among the produce of the brewery was the creamy ‘Cromac Porter’, sold in an imperial pint “Big Bottle” with a screw stopper top. Another focus of McConnell’s Brewery Ltd. was on local produce. On 4th October 1921, an advert placed in the Belfast Telegraph asked readers to help end local unemployment:
Support the local manufacturer whose concern is in your midst, and whose business is run by Belfast brains, money, and men. Why should you eat or drink imported articles when you can have them of local manufacture? Demand them from the shopkeeper and he will supply you.
We do not know how popular the Cromac range of beers was but records suggest the owners placed the brewery up for sale in 1926.
In 1940, 6th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers had a base in the old brewery and distillery buildings.
We were stationed in the old Cro Brewery on Raven Hill [sic] Road, West Belfast [sic]. This was on the side of the River Lagan and we had quite a number of rats for company. While we were in Belfast it was very badly bombed on two nights and we had the task of recovering the bodies. While in Belfast we did some good route marches and by the time we got back on the outskirts of the city we were on our chinstraps. Most of the churches gave free tea and cakes etc to the troops.
Fusilier James H. Hughes, 6th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers writing for B.B.C. WW2 People’s War, 20th October 2015.
The land was vacant in 1939 and the 1943 Belfast Street Directory shows H.M. Government as the occupiers of 35-43 Ravenhill Road. The site of McConnell’s Brewery on the Ravenhill Road, Belfast is now in the hands of T.T.C. Ltd.