Templemore based Whitefield Brewery says renaming the brand allowed them to start over.
Tipperary’s Whitefield Brewery was originally called White Gypsy, but after a campaign in opposition of the name which accused the brand of cultural appropriation they made the decision to change the name.
Proprietor Cuilann Loughnane told Tipp FM the prompt for the name change came when two Irish Traveller activists also called out the name of the brewery.
“They were quiet level headed about it, just asking us why we were using the Gypsy name. So rather than respond to anything on the internet, we contacted those two directly ourselves and they were very level headed about it.”
It is now one of 30 craft breweries around the world and the only one in Ireland participating in the Resolve beer project in support of Ukraine donating all proceeds from their Resolve beer to a not-for-profit organisation providing emergency aid inside Ukraine.
Loughnane told Tipp FM that some products took a dip as customers didn’t recognise the products:
“We’re still finding our feet with some of it… we see some of our biggest selling bottles took a dip people didn’t realise it was the same bottle the same product.“
He added that the name change not only allowed them to “have a clean slate” but that others recognised and applauded their decision to change the name.
“Dr Sindy Joyce tweeted out that it was great to see small Irish companies becoming aware of this type of thing, and actually doing something about it.”
