US ELECTION PLAYED PART IN BREWER’S DEPARTURE FROM BALLYMOTE’S WHITE HAG
THE US presidential election appears to have played a part in a parting of the ways between a Sligo craft brewery and its former head brewer.
The White Hag Irish Brewing Company in Ballymote is known for its innovative range of beers and its popular Hagstravaganza festival.
The company announced on Twitter at the end of last month that “former masterbrewer Joe Kearns has resigned from our employment”.
The brewery management said that the resignation of Mr Kearns, who is American, was as a result of “recent opinions and views of our former brewmaster shared in the public domain”, which were, they said, “associated with, and even viewed as, representative of the brewery”.
It is understood this referred to comments on social media by Mr Kearns.
According to the brewery, these opinions “included some that discussed or showed support of organisations that promote hateful and divisive ideologies and conspiracy theories”. “Any such representation of the brewery could not be further from the truth,” the White Hag said.
However, a fundraising page set up to raise money for travel expenses back to the US for the Kearns family claims that the “cancel mob” forced them to return there and that “a mob of keyboard warriors systematically destroyed their lives over a simple Instagram post of the Statue of Liberty crying” and that it was “all because, like half of America, he (Joe Kearns) wasn’t happy that Biden won the election”.
That is not a viewed shared by the brewery.
In a statement on the brewery’s website on Friday last, the White Hag management said: “Recent events at the White Hag have provided us with a much-needed wake-up call about the importance of our company culture and values, and how we define and communicate these with staff and our community of beer consumers.”
They said that the White Hag “is committed to promoting diversity, inclusion and openness in all areas”. They said: “We did not take seriously enough the impact of the personal views and beliefs of team members, and how they impact our community. We now realise our team is our brewery, and that their actions do reflect directly on our brand.” And they said that the “absence of diversity in the management team – coupled with a lack of training and policies in specific areas – meant we did not understand the impacts of these views and beliefs on our community”. The statement continued: “Recent events have made us realise that when confronted with views like our former brewmaster’s, the worst thing you can do is to do nothing. To be silent is to be complicit.”
They said it is their intention is to “learn from this episode” and they are seeking “guidance from professionals and friends in the community”, starting with diversity and inclusion training for their entire team, along with building “a robust diversity and inclusion policy”. For this, they have engaged the services of a company called Under The Rainbow for training and policy development and have appointed an independent HR service “who will investigate any issues raised by current or former staff, customers or social media connections who may have any issue to bring forward about the organisation or members of staff”. The company also said that “recent events have triggered ongoing legal and HR processes” and they said these issues “restrict our ability to openly and publicly discuss some matters right now”.
The fundraising page set up for the Kearns family on Fundly states: “Seven years ago, Joe and his wife Chrissy made the tough decision to leave their home with their two young children, Ben (3) and Bella, who was only one, and move to Ireland to help start the White Hag Brewery in Sligo.”
It says that their hard work and “sacrifice” were “cut short by the cancel mob forcing them to go home”.
The fundraising page states that anyone who worked with Joe Kearns would know he was “an honest, down-to-earth, passionate man” and “one of the most curious and open-minded people I’ve ever met”. It continues: “But, none of that mattered this past January, when a mob of keyboard warriors systematically destroyed their lives over a simple Instagram post of the Statue of Liberty crying.
“His friends and family had to watch in disbelief as hordes of people, who had never met Joe, called him every name under the sun – racist, homophobic, white-supremacist, bigot, etc. All because, like half of America, he wasn’t happy that Biden won the election.
“Left with no choice but to resign his position to save the brand that he loved and helped build, they’re now forced to move back to Ohio, in the middle of a pandemic.”
Appealing for people to help “this amazing family get back home to the ones who love and appreciate them”, it is pointed out that because most airlines aren’t flying dogs, the costs of the Kearns family bringing their family pet are now “hyper-inflated” so they have to rent a car and drive from Chicago to Akron.
And it says that “last-minute arrangements for shipping all of their belongings back home, flights for four people, and pet moving has eaten through all of their savings”.