DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - The parent company of Irish beer icon Guinness announced Monday it may change or abandon plans to reform production in Ireland and open a new state-of-the-art brewery because of the struggling global economy.
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Diageo had planned by 2013 to cut Guinness' brewing staff in Ireland by more than half, shut two breweries in the towns of Dundalk and Kilkenny, and reduce Guinness production at its Dublin brewery, one of Ireland's premier tourist attractions with a heritage dating back to 1759.
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Diageo's major brewing competitor in Ireland, Heineken NV of the Netherlands, last month announced it was closing a brewery that for 210 years has produced Beamish, a local competitor to Guinness, in the southwest Irish city of Cork.