Faces Behind D8: Joe Donnelly - Rascals Brewing Co

You spent 16 years working in radio. What first drew you to it, and what did you love about being behind the microphone?

I suppose what first drew me to it was the chance to work in something creative. The very first show I did was with Keith Walsh on Near FM, a community radio station out in Coolock. It was a mixture of comedy sketches and music, which were my two passions at the time. They still are.

I actually wanted to work in television as a comedy writer. I’d done a postgraduate video production course in Galway and got a job as an assistant cameraman with a production company. We were filming at Near FM one day and I saw a sign on the wall saying, “Volunteers welcome.” I thought, Maybe I could do a radio show.

I’d listened to music and radio all my life. I used to do funny skits with my brother like recording our voices onto a tape deck between songs where he’d be Bob Geldof and I’d be Pat Kenny, silly stuff, but I just love that. So we got in touch with Near FM, and they said, “You want to do a show? No problem.” It was amazing!

It was once a weekly show which was a mixture of comedy sketches and music. Being a community radio station we got to play the music that we loved and it was great craic. We did think about what worked well together; we didn’t just go mad. Nowadays I think they call that playlisting! That was back in September 2000, and that’s how it all began really.

What led you from radio to Rascals, and what was it like starting a new chapter in Inchicore?

Well, there’s a long way around that one. By the summer of 2018, I’d reached a point where I wanted a career change. I’d ended up working in management at Today FM, and before that I’d been at TXFM, previously known as Phantom. That station was really close to my heart. When it closed, I felt it was irreplaceable. Nothing was going to match it.

Going from that into management was a real shock. It was a completely different ball game, and it wasn’t one I enjoyed. I knew from life experience that if you stay in something you don’t like, it festers. You end up bitter and resentful. The truth is, I probably still missed being on air and playing alternative music. I just thought, I need a clean break.

Luckily, I didn’t think too much about how monumental a decision it was, because I’d have completely freaked out - mortgage, kids and all that. But Rascals was expanding and opening this venue in Inchicore. I’d already been in touch with them through Twitter DMs because I used to post pictures of beers and talk about craft beer. So I knew they were looking for a marketing manager.

And let’s just say a conversation was had. I think they were wondering, Is this guy serious? And that made me wonder, Am I serious about this? It turned out I was. I remember my wife saying, “Just go for the fucking job, will you?” So I did.

I started here in September 2018 - eight years ago this month, almost to the week. Rascals had been a small brewery out in Rathcoole, just a few tanks in a grey, anonymous warehouse unit. Opening a brewery, restaurant and bar here was a massive expansion. The owners, Emma and Cathal, had to learn a whole new side of the business, from getting the restaurant and bar licences to making the place work day to day. It was a huge amount to take on, and extremely difficult at times.

We opened in November, had a brilliant year in 2019, and then, just as we’d found our feet, the pandemic arrived. It all went pear-shaped. But we bounced back, big time.

If you were bringing someone to Rascals for the first time, what would you want them to experience?

I’d have to say the beer. I could say the tour, but I’d genuinely skip straight to a proper guided tasting. That’s what the company is about. Of course, the pizzas are brilliant, but I feel the beer is even more unique to Rascals. It really is the essence of the company.

So the first thing I’d do is say, “Right, here’s a tasting tray. These are four beers I’ve chosen, and I’m going to tell you why.” I do like talking about beer!

We can be experimental, but we also respond to what people want. There’s been a move away from very experimental beers towards familiar styles made really well. People increasingly want a reliable lager, for example, rather than a blueberry barrel-aged cheesecake stout—which is fine too, but tastes have changed. I get quite enthusiastic when I’m tasting beers with people, and I think that’s what I’d want to showcase.

You’ve been part of Rascals since its early days in Inchicore. How has the place grown, and are there moments that stand out for you?

There are loads of moments—too many to choose from. One of the things I’m very proud of is that we’ve been included in McKenna’s Guides’ Best in Ireland for five years in a row. That’s pretty sweet.

Two other massive moments were getting genuine mentions in National Geographic and Time Out New York. We were absolutely thrilled. We were like, “What?”

For me, as a marketing manager, those things are incredible. When you see another company or brand having moments like that, you’re dead jealous. You think, “Fuck, I want that.” So getting those moments for Rascals has been brilliant. It really has. It’s been very, very satisfying.

Even a funny video going viral is mad. The biggest one was probably when we were hosting a Sopranos-themed table quiz. I made an Inchicore version of the opening sequence, where Tony’s driving in the car. I was absolutely astonished by the response. The quiz sold out in an hour. It was fucking ridiculous.

But it taught me something. People recognised the places in the video—Scoop’s shop, a house they knew. They were saying, “Fuck, I know that!” That local sense of connection is so important. I could have marketed the quiz in all sorts of ways, but this really resonated with people. It reminded me to keep the marketing simple sometimes, and to remember who you’re talking to and why. People see thousands of ads and images every day. What are you going to do that makes them stop and say, “Jesus, hang on”?

There’s no universal rule, though. You might spend hours making a video and it’ll do barely anything. That’s just the vagaries of social media, especially with the algorithm involved. You have to learn from what happens and put that learning into practice. I’d like to think I’ve developed a good intuition for it, but I’m not saying I get it right every time.

What has working here taught you about Inchicore and the people who make up its community?

It’s funny, I think I’ve always felt a connection to Inchicore, even before I worked here. My aunt is from St Michael’s Flats, and her brothers, the Doyles, would be well known around here. Her uncle Joe Cully was involved in the Workman’s Club down in the village. I’m very curious about that history. I keep saying I need to go in there and have a pint.

But I genuinely felt welcomed here from the minute we opened, and I really mean that. Everyone has been so sound and supportive from the outset. There’s an authenticity to Inchicore, a realness about it. Like so many Dublin neighbourhoods, it has its problems, but there’s also this massive sense of community and a keenness to make it the best place to live.

I remember dropping pizzas down for the Christmas tree lights being switched on one year. And during the pandemic, we worked with St Pat’s doing food bank deliveries. That was a tough and bleak time, but really important, and the people were amazing.

Over the years I’ve worked with clubs and societies, charities, schools, other businesses and local attractions. Even walking around taking photographs for our website, I’ll bump into people and get chatting. There’s something incredibly decent about the people here, without question.

Can you tell us about an event or local collaboration at Rascals that has stayed with you? What made it special?

There have been a few. The collaboration we did on the cans for Culture Date with Dublin 8 last year was really special. I’d wanted to do something like that for a while, so I was delighted we got to do it.

We also made a commemorative can marking the time St Pat’s travelled to America in 2024 and played Minnesota United over there. It was really cool to do that with a local football club we already sponsor. I was chuffed, too, that Donal Fallon launched his book The Dublin Pub here as part of the Dublin Book Festival. There’s such a natural crossover between a book about Dublin pubs and a local brewery. It was fantastic to be included.

Those are the kinds of projects that make the job worthwhile. They’re exciting and interesting, and you’re working on something different every week. A lot of them involve local connections, which are important to us, and important for the business too, to be honest.

Actually, hang on, I’ve completely forgotten one of the best ones. Earlier this year, we collaborated with Kari, the Indian restaurant in Inchicore, on two limited-edition pizzas. They were only available for a month, and people still talk about them. Two of the best pizzas we’ve ever done.

I approached them and said, “Look, I know this might seem a little odd, but we’d love to make a pizza with you.” Our head chef and I went down to meet them and talk about spices and Indian cuisine. We filmed that, developed the pizzas, and then invited them up to taste them and give us the thumbs-up. It was a wonderful example of two hospitality businesses coming together.

I was absolutely chuffed because it was one of those ideas that was hard to pin down at first. Then we did it, and it was fucking brilliant. The butter chicken pizza was called the Kari Gold, you can thank me for that name! The pizzas were incredible.

You clearly love bringing people together around music. Where did that passion begin?

I think it was always there. I just never saw it as anything more than, I really like music. When I was in secondary school, I managed the school band. That was the daft beginning of my music career, if you want to call it that. I did a bit of DJing in college too.

Working in radio gave it its first proper expression. Then, when I started presenting a show on my own at TXFM, I realised that the thing I’d always taken for granted—simply loving and talking about music—was something people connected with. I didn’t have to pretend to know things I didn’t. Sometimes I’d get an album name wrong and make a fool of myself, and I still do, but people responded to the honesty of it.

It was a challenging time because there had been a backlash when Phantom closed, and I got some horrible stuff online. Part of me wanted to prove those people wrong. But I also thought, I’ve spent 35 years loving music, going to gigs and writing about it. I need to back myself here.

I even wrote a satirical column about pop music for Hot Press for a couple of years. I’ve still got all the back issues at home.

So I suppose TXFM was when I realised that talking about music was what I really liked doing—and that other people wanted to be part of that conversation.

With Tins and Tunes, you paired albums with craft beers. How did that idea come about?

That was just silly nonsense! Honestly, I was taking the piss a bit. It was very loosely based on my own perception that a dark, autumnal ale would suit Alt-J better than, say, Fatboy Slim. I was making it all up, and it was really good fun.

I think I did about ten episodes. It was years ago, around 2015, and I made it on the side while I was working at TXFM, because I had access to the studios. It was just a little hobby I did myself. The social media manager said they’d host it on the Today FM platform, and I thought, Cool. That was really all it was: a bit of craic. The fact that I ended up working at Rascals later was pure coincidence—or maybe some would say it was destiny!

What inspired you to start Albums Worth Talking About, and what have you learned about people through the albums they choose?

I’d done three of them at Rascals this year. I had this idea: would it be cool to do a live show similar to what I do on my music channels? There, I’ll talk about an album, dig into it and describe why I love it or what it means to me. I thought it could be really interesting to do that with guests in front of an audience and hear what they had to say.

The three I’ve done have been great craic. They’re a bit more work than people probably realise with getting guests together and organising everything, but I’ve really enjoyed them, and I’d love to do more.

What have I learned? That some people have really strange taste in music! No, what I love is seeing how passionate someone can be about an album or a band, and finding out why. It never ceases to surprise or interest me. Sometimes it’s about the music; sometimes it’s a very personal story.

For example, Donal Fallon brought a Pogues album, and his contribution was full of stories about the band’s politics, Shane MacGowan and the social history of London. Róisín O brought a Declan O’Rourke album and talked about what it meant to her at that age, including the fact that she had a crush on him. Both were wonderful to listen to, but they approached their albums in completely different ways.

That’s what I love most. You come away thinking, that was fucking cool, I didn’t expect to hear that! The album gives you a glimpse of a really honest side of someone. Nobody’s trying too hard, and that’s the point.

You’ve built a huge audience by talking about music in short videos. What made you start sharing them, and what do you think people connect with in those conversations?

I started in October 2024. I felt I needed a hobby at that point in my life, but I wanted it to be something that reconnected me with music. I still think very fondly of being on air at TXFM and Phantom.

I’d been watching a lot of videos on Instagram and TikTok of people appreciating vinyl, with beautifully made videos of someone taking a record out of its sleeve. And I thought, Jeez, no one’s doing CDs. I could do CDs.

I have so many of them. My years in radio coincided with the peak of the CD as the main format for music, and I realised I had all these special editions and anniversary releases with mad little extras: booklets, even a Rubik’s Cube. I thought people might find those interesting. I did wonder, Will I run out of things after three months? But there are so many albums and songs out there, and people are still releasing CDs. Every year, something else becomes a classic.

So I sat down and started recording. I quickly realised I needed a teleprompter and a proper light, and before long I thought, Right, let’s do this properly—the production and editing as well. I do it independently of my job at Rascals.

The tipping point came in late November 2024, when I posted my albums of the year. I woke up the next morning to thousands and thousands of views and thought there’d been a mistake. TikTok grew first. For a while I was thinking, Jesus, no one cares on Instagram. Then Instagram took off as well, and it was bedlam.

I did want it to be successful, so I knew I had to commit to it. I post three times a week and try to reply to people’s comments and engage with them. Showing up is such a big part of everything in life—just fucking show up. I felt that if I kept doing that, it would grow. I just had to wait, and it did.

As for what people connect with, I think the response showed me there are plenty of people who are still interested in talking about CDs and the stories around albums. I enjoy having those conversations with them.

When you think about the future of Inchicore, what would you love to see grow, and what do you hope it holds on to?

I hope it holds on to the authenticity of the people who live here. I’d love to see independent businesses continue to do well and for people to feel they can open something here. There are great examples already: Unfiltered Coffee, Boom, Riggers, Small Changes, Stillgarden Distillery, The Hot Box and Flower Pop to name a few.

I wouldn’t want the attitude of the people to change. I’d also love to see more people getting involved in community groups and projects. Colm does Inchicore Environmental, for example, and I’d like to see more of those kinds of things. They’re good for so many reasons. It’s wonderful when people feel invested in their community.

What’s coming up at Rascals that you’re looking forward to?

Rocktoberfest. It’s always great craic. It’s a one-day event with guest beers, Irish breweries, DJs, games, pretzels, pizza and brewery tours. I’ll be DJing too. It’s a really fun day out, whether you’re deeply into beer or just want to come along and enjoy yourself.

Want to experience Rascals for yourself? Join Joe and the team for Rocktoberfest on Saturday 10 October, with guest beers, DJs, pizza, pretzels, games and brewery tours. Get your tickets here.

Quick fire Round

First album you bought with your own money?
The debut album by Bros. I don’t know if I should even have said that!

An album you’ll defend forever?
Any Iron Maiden album.

A song that instantly puts you in a good mood?
“Desire Lines” by Deerhunter.

Best gig you’ve ever been to?
The Pixies’ reunion gig in the Phoenix Park, on the bill with Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were unbelievable. The Pixies, I mean—not the Chili Peppers!

An Irish artist everyone should listen to?
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Messiah J & The Expert. I think they’re the best Irish hip-hop outfit there’s ever been, and they don’t get enough love. For someone making music now, Radie Peat’s solo album is one to watch. It’s stunning, musically and vocally.

A Rascals beer and album pairing?
Our new Oktoberfest Pils with Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R. There’s a natural fit, in my opinion.

Your go-to Rascals pizza order?
The Buffalo Saints with pepperoni. Absolutely class.

Favourite spot in Inchicore, besides Rascals?
The park at the Oblates. I go and sit on a bench there or meet friends for coffee. It’s a little sanctuary.

Someone in Dublin 8 you’d love to share a pint and a playlist with?
It has to be Donal Fallon. Actually, and let’s add Brian Kerr, that would be a wild night out!

One word to describe Inchicore?
Authentic. There’s absolutely no bullshit here, and you’ll get called out if you’re bullshitting.