The Guinness Ireland Group is finally to withdraw from the retail bar business by selling its three remaining bars in the Dublin area. The company's retail subsidiary, Murtagh Properties, is hoping to capitalise on the buoyant market by selling the Clonsilla Inn at Clonsilla, Dublin 15, the Cherry Tree at Walkinstown Cross, Dublin 12, and The Sheaf of Wheat at Coolock. The three businesses are to be auctioned towards the end of October by joint agents John Younge and Edward J. Bohan.

Guinness bought a dozen pubs in Dublin and Cork in the 1960s at a time when other breweries looked like developing a retail chain of bars. Guinness sold off nine of the bars in recent years, including O'Byrnes in Rathmines and the Liffey Bar on Eden Quay.