led to a resultant decrease in sales. From the foundation, Beamish and Crawford dominated the Cork porter market, until in 1856 James J. Murphy opened Lady's Well Brewery. Ongoing conflict within the Beamish family, as well as a rise in sectarianism (the Murphy family were a prominent Catholic family in Cork at the time) enabled Murphy's to challenge Beamish and Crawford's dominance. Initially Murphy's did not enjoy much success, and after less than two years in business, members of the family approached Beamish and Crawford hoping that the latter would purchase their new brewery, but they were rebuffed. This resulted in Murphy's going to great lengths to challenge Beamish and Crawford, and they began acquiring public houses and underselling Beamish and Crawford porter. On 14 February 1861, both breweries signed "an agreement for mutual non-interference", though by this point, Murphy's had positioned itself as a competitor. While in 1861 Murphy's sold roughly a third of what Beamish and Crawford did, by 1863 they sold over half. Beamish and Crawford's sale of 116,076 barrels of porter in 1861 would not be surpassed until 1901. In 1865, the brewery underwent a modernisation programme and was completely revamped at a cost of £100,000. Alfred Barnard, a noted brewing and distilling historian, remarked in his book The Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland in 1889 that: "The business of Beamish & Crawford in Cork is a very old one dating as far back as the seventeenth century and it is said to be the most ancient porter brewery in Ireland." The company went public in 1901, issuing a share capital of £480,000. Further expansion was aided by the acquisition of a number of local breweries in the early 1900s. In 1962, it was purchased by the Canadian brewing firm Carling-O'Keefe Ltd, who embarked on a modernisation programme at the brewery. In 1987, Elders IXL purchased Canadian Breweries (incorporating Carling-O'Keefe). In 1995, Elders sold the brewery to Scottish & Newcastle. With the 2008 takeover of Scottish & Newcastle, the brewery passed into the hands of its main Cork-based rival Heineken International. In December 2008, it was announced that the Beamish and Crawford brewery was to close in March 2009 with the loss of 120 jobs. Production was moved to the nearby Heineken Brewery (previously Murphy's), with about forty of the Beamish staff moved to Heineken. The brewery buildings (including the Tudor fronted "counting house")