Ireland’s best-selling brew has found new favour among women, the young, and celebrity drinkers. Now a shortage of supply in UK pubs has opened the door to competitors

At the Lamb, a pub on London’s Holloway Road, Hamish Goodwin is nursing a pint of Murphy’s.

A Guinness drinker, Goodwin recently fell in love with the lesser-known stout, which he calls “slightly richer”. Though generally less common, Murphy’s has been “creeping up” in pubs and bars in the capital recently, he’s noticed.