"but it is NOT real ale and doesn't get anywhere close."
No argument there - and I miss good beer desperately, but it's comparing apples and orange
"He said that they were indeed deliberately being made slightly differently because the English were not patient enough to wait for a pint to be pulled in the Irish way"
Nail on the head - would add the temperature of the beer - one of the plagues in Dublin is the tasteless ice-cold stuff that seems to be popular with tourists and those not old enough to know any better.
While I was electricioning in London publs, I worked in The Kings Head on Fulham Broadway.
An elderly Irishman came in every lunchtime and ordered a pint from the governor.
One afternoon, he came in and a young woman was serving, while the governor was chatting to a customer at the far end of the bar.
He said to the girl, "I'll have a pint of Guinness, and I'll have him serving me", poinmting to the governor.
It's an art form!
Jim Carroll