Sounds close but Red Barrel had been around since the late 1950s although based on the original 1930s keg beer, the Red Barrel trade mark had been thought up in 1930 as a competition (won by Mr E.W. Rankin of Alperton, Middlesex). I don't think anyone had heard of "Irish Red ale" in the 1960s I thought it was a marketing ploy of the 1990s along with that Caffreys and later Smithwicks rubbish. AFAIK Red Barrel was just their bitter, filtered, pasteurised and carbonated as per Tankard, John Courage, Brew XI, Worthington E and all the rest of the pish. Worst of the lot was Watney's Starlight a keg made from recycled ullage. The Red Revolution didn't go well for Watneys (or Grand Metropolitan the owners of the brand at the time), they ended up painting their pubs any colour but red, I remember some trying to look like Fullers pubs with their style of stripes. I only found the beer offensive not the ad's featuring bad lookalikes.
Fined Bitter (Stag) appears in the 1977 GBG, the first I still have, while Tamplins, Manns Bitter and Norwich Castle Bitter (all brewed in Norwich) are also there in the 1978 edition. London Bitter makes an appearance in 1979. Norwich closed in 1985 and the beers quickly faded away after that, the only "Watney's" cask beer being produced by Wilsons, Websters and Ushers until they all got closed.
I must admit my Irish Red Ale theory was plucked from the ether and would seem to be a complete load of cobblers! The anonymity of Watney pubs takes me back. The Ee-Aaw group are continuing that tradition with the "Craft Union" chain of pubs where the craftiest beer I've found is Hobgoblin Gold.
I don't guarantee I'm right but it's certainly my recollection. A few internet sources witter on about Kilkenny in 1710 as the source but that sounds like complete bollocks, obviously they are American home brewer/beer review sites that are well known for publishing utter rubbish. Sounds like they swallowed a load of blarney.
3 out of 10 for getting the top three right! Apart from The Railway, another of our top 25 they missed is The Station. They must have found an old Dr Beeching list!
It is a shame that they do not give the number of each pub name so we can see how many pubs they have failed to find!