A TALE OF THIRST AND HOW GUINNESS CURED IT

In the beginning, so far back in antiquity that no record of it survives, an accident occurred. Someone, somewhere perhaps among the hunter-gatherers of the Middle East, stumbled upon the pleasant effects of a very primitive beer.

Rapidly the realisation spread among pre-literate peoples that by harvesting the fruits of the earth and by adding water to wild-growing, or naturally produced, sugar-containing raw materials like grapes, fruits, berries or honey and by leaving the sweet mishmash exposed in the warm air(at the mercy of airborne yeasts), a highly prized stimulating beverage would reward the effort. Slowly, gradually, in those areas which favoured starchy vegetation such as cereal grasses, the plants we now call wheat, barley and rye were eventually bred around 6,000 years ago. So it came to pass that somewhere, possibly among the lofty pastures of the mountain herdsmen of Mesopotamia, a better breed of beer was born.

And out of the mists of prehistory stepped Homo Guinnessens, or Pro-Guinness Man, and the search for the Perfect Pint began. Preparing bread for the brewing mash. Model of an ancient Egyptian Brewhouse. TESTING THE WATERS OF BABYLON

Thus it came about that if you walked into a bar in Babylon around 2000 B.C. you could have sampled no fewer than 16 different beers. Indeed the great legal code of King Hammurabi found it necessary to include a few consumer protection laws governing the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Brewers found to have diluted their products were to be incarcerated in their own vats.

The ancient Egyptians(and their mummies) were habitual beer drinkers. Beer even found its way into 15 per cent of their medical prescriptions. Yet their mash consisted simply of a partly baked bread mixed with water which was allowed to ferment. It was strained through sieves into stone water jars, and if the truth were told, it was probably not very alcoholic and it certainly had a short life.

They called some of it bouzah after an old city,Bousiris, in the Nile Delta. (The word booze comes from the same source.)

But in the end it proved to be very thin stuff. And through it all man's(and woman's) search for a truly great beer went on. Barley from Tutankhamun's tomb, sent by the archaeologist Howard Carter to Guinness Dublin for analysis. Ancient Egyptians being carried home from a drinks party.

Long before the Pyramids were built the arts and mysteries of brewing had spread across Europe; far, far from the Valley of the Kings to the westernmost island in the known world to the green and fertile land of Ireland.

Our Neolithic ancestors, while they are best remembered for their massive megalithic monuments such as those at Newgrange and Knowth, began their farming revolution in the clear glades of the Irish forests. And as they planted crops such as barley and wheat, they sowed the seeds of a great Irish brewing tradition.

Their successors, the Bronze Age miners, regularly rounded off a busy day's metalworking(which included making hoops for the new fangled wooden casks and vats) with stimulating liquors brewed in splendid bronze cauldrons and quaffed from decorated pottery beakers Late Bronze Age Irish cauldron. Poulnabrone Dolmen

but many centuries of trial and error would elapse before IRELAND'S DARK SECRET would be revealed. Neolithic stone axe IMAGINE HOW A CELT FELT WITHOUT GUINNESS

The flamboyant impulsive talkative Celts of Ireland's Iron Age may, in their enthusiasm, have put just a little too much emphasis on quantity rather than quality when it came to liquid refreshments. Quite often a slave would change hands for an amphora of wine, so keen was their taste for strong beverages. Their beer was well known all over Europe Korma,Courmi, or Coirm it was called, depending on where you found it from Czechoslovakia to the Skelligs. They stored it in massive casks said to have been as large as houses.

Dioscorides, that old Greek travelling pub-spy-cum-physician, was not impressed with their product. He reported that Coirm, being drunk by the Irish instead of wine, produces headaches, is a compound of bad juices, and does harm to the muscles. Sounds as if he had a rough night trying to keep pace with his hosts, poor fellow!

Throughout the great early Irish epic tale Tin B Cuailnge there are times when one of the heroes, King Conchubar,spends a third of his day feasting, a third watching the young warriors wrestle and a third drinking coirm until he falls asleep. HOLY WATERS

It is gratifying to know that hardworking saint, Patrick, brought his own brewer, a priest called Mescan, on his journeys with him around 5th century Ireland. And the great St. Brigid did the brewing for all the churches in the neighbourhood of Kildare at Eastertide. NE'ER SHALL YOU FIND, SHOULD YOU SEARCH TILL YOU TIRE, SO HAPPY A MAN AS THE BARE-FOOTED FRIAR.

In the cloistered shelter of the medieval monasteries brewing was becoming quite an art in the skilled hands of monks well used to brewing table beers for their abbots. Close to St. James's Gate, Dublin, the clever friars of the Abbey of St. Thomas the Martyr, like their brothers elsewhere, were discovering some home truths about quality control and the merits of allowing beer to come into condition. Ale shoulde not be drunk under V days olde, Newe Ale is unholesome for all men. And sowre ale, and dead ale, and ale the while doth stand a tylte is good for no man.

Beer was a very important part of monastic life where the daily ration of a monk could be as much as a gallon:of course there was always the caveat If any monk through drinking too freely gets thick of speech so that he can not join in the psalms, he is to be deprived of his supper.

Throughout the Middle Ages brewing, like so many other things, was done by the women, so a cottage industry evolved that was centred on a family household. If a woman brewed a better beer than her neighbours her house became the favoured one in the locality the local.

By 1620 the alewives controlled the Dublin trade. A visitor to the city wrote any woman, if her credit will serve to borrow a pan, and to buy but a measure of mault in the market, setts up brewing. As family businesses grew and the social standing of their owners improved, the alewives became ladies, to be replaced by the common brewers of the newly chartered Guild or Corporation of the Brewers and Maltsters of Dublin. 17th century alehouse scene. Medieval brewers alas knew precious little about good housekeeping practices.

And now suddenly the trail grows warmer the air around St. James's Gate is heady with sweet mash. A pure water supply abounds and no other countrie has a corne market better furnished than Dublin is.

Here a thriving brewing quarter had developed made up of alewife, innkeeper and alehouse brewers. Here they treated hops with great suspicion. (Sweet ale drinkers vigorously attacked it as that pernicious and wicked weed). Yet you could call for a mug of Ordinarie or Strong beer, or a mixture of both for 1d, 1d or 2d a quart, according to your taste.

Already there was a fledgling brewery at St. James's Gate and the stage was set for the arrival of one who would sweep away the myth and mystery and bring instead the art and science of brewing to perfection. THE COMING OF ARTHUR

In the year 1670 Giles Mee, a brewer of modest distinction, who later became Dublin's Lord Mayor, was the owner of the brewery at St. James's Gate(an outer defence to the old walled city of Dublin). Twenty one years later it passed to his son-in-law, Mark Rainsford I, whose beers and fine ales were brewed here in turn by his son Mark Rainsford II. The customers however did not consider his products so fine, as a popular ballad of the day maintained: This beer is sour, thin, musty, weak and stale, And worse than anything except the ale.

The second Mr. Rainsford appears to have got the message and abandoned the trade after five or six years, and he eventually leased the brewery in 1715 to John Paul Espinasse, an ale brewer of Huguenot extraction. For thirty five years Espinasse's Ale held its own in the turbulent market conditions of Ireland's eighteenth century brewery industry. Unfortunately, and quite suddenly, one July day in 1750 John Paul Espinasse was thrown from his horse outside Drogheda and died, having fractured his skull.

The brewery at St. James's Gate reverted to the Rainsfords and went dark for ten whole years. Finally, on the last day of the decade, 31 December 1759, Arthur Guinness stepped boldly into the dark. This confident young brewer, then aged 34, paid 100 down, signed with a flourish that famous signature on a 9000 year lease at an annual rent of 45 from Mark Rainsford III, and rode through the gate to take possession of his destiny.

Our quest is ended. One of the world's few truly great beers was about to be brewed for the first time. The rest is history.

And you too can take up Irish history tonight(or, for that matter,any time you raise a glass of Guinness to your lips). John Paul Espinasse. The signatures of Mark Rainsford and Arthur Guinness as they appear on the famous lease of 1759.

The Brewery then consisted of a copper, a kieve, a mill, two malthouses, stables for 12 horses and a loft to hold 2000 tons of hay.

Like his predecessors Arthur started out brewing ale, taking note all the while of a new black beer being exported by the London brewers to Dublin. Arthur's ale had to be served from a blend of several barrels. The new beer, popular with the porters of Covent Garden was then known as Entire in that is was served from a single barrel. It took its characteristic dark colour from the addition of roasted barley to it.

Guinness tried his hand at the new Porter with rather more success than his fellow Dublin brewers. And finally he had to choose between this and the traditional Dublin ale. History has shown that he made the right choice.

In 1799 as the new century dawned, Arthur Guinness, then seventy four, brewed his last ale. And on this decision rests the greatest porter and stout brewery of all time. Inventory to Arthur's 9000 year lease. 18th century Guinness customer.

Part of the lease Arthur signed guaranteed him his brewing water free of tax or pipe money, and in this regard he had a long standing feud with the city authorities which lasted over twenty years.

Then on the 16th May, 1775 a Corporation committee and a team of labourers, having served notice on Mr. Guinness, arrived at the brewery and set out to cut off and fill in the water course from which the brewery drew its supplies. Arthur declared that if necessary he would defend his water by force of arms. The Sheriff, Mr. Truelock, was called and with two of the men set about the work of destruction. When at this point the outraged proprietor himself arrived on the scene, seized a pickaxe from a workman and defied the party to proceed,using very much improper language, the sheriff had second thoughts and counselled withdrawal.

Litigation followed until finally the dispute was settled by agreement between the two parties on 16th July 1784 twenty years after the indomitable brewer had first crossed swords with the Corporation.

In old age Arthur would still come to the brewery for an hour or two every day and later ride on horseback to his flour mills at Kilmainham. View downstream from Kilmainham with site of Guinness brewery on the right. By William Sadlier.

In 1803 this rugged founder of a business that was to become world-famous and bear his name, died at his house in Gardiner Street, Dublin in his 78th year.

Today the use of the term a Guinness underlines the uniqueness of the product.

Arthur would be delighted that such pleasure could be had simply by mentioning his name. FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS

Initially the Guinness trade was a local one, gradually spreading out from Dublin through the canal networks. From its position in the capital(then considered the Second City of the Empire) and from the sheer size of the market, coupled with the technological advances of the steam age, Guinness was, by 1800, well positioned to take its first tentative step onto the world stage.

With nothing more to recommend it than its quality, Guinness began to make a friendly invasion of many parts of the globe. Buyers came to Dublin without solicitation, bought what they wanted, paid for it on the spot and shipped it away. Already by 1803 Guinness's West Indies Porter was making its way under sail to the Caribbean.

The extent of the Guinness world conquest can be imagined from a letter sent home to Ireland by an Enniskillen Dragoon recovering in Belgium after being wounded on the battlefield of Waterloo in 1815. When I was sufficiently recovered to be permitted nourishment I felt the most extraordinary desire for a glass of Guinness, which I knew could be obtained without difficulty. I am confident that it contributed more than anything else to my recovery.

Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, whose short life was plagued by ill health, brought his supplies of Guinness to Western Samoa. In 1893 while recovering from a bout of influenza he wrote You will see from this heading that I am not dead yet, nor likely to be. Fanny ate a whole fowl for breakfast, to say nothing of a tower of hot cakes. Belle and I floored another hen betwixt the pair of us, and I shall be no sooner done with the present writing racket than I shall put myself outside a pint of Guinness.

Throughout his works Charles Dickens made several references to Guinness. In an illustration to the 1837 edition of Pickwick Papers Sam Weller is shown composing his Valentine beneath an early showcard advertisement for the new Guinness Dublin Stout.

British Prime Minister and novelist Benjamin Disraeli, recorded in a letter to his sister:So, after all, there was a division on the Address in Queen Victoria's first parliament I then left the house at ten o'clock, none of us having dined. The tumult and excitement great, I dined, or rather supped, at the Carlton with a large party of the flower of our side, off oysters, Guinness and broiled bones, and got to bed at half past twelve. Thus ended the most remarkable day hitherto of my life.

By 1909 Guinness had reached the frozen wastes of the South Pole. Douglas Mawson, the Australian explorer, who discovered the South Magnetic Pole, left some provisions behind at his base camp which were found be another expedition in 1927. The stores were in good condition after 18 years; cocoa, salt, flour and matches were found to be as good as when first placed there. There were also four bottles of Guinness on a shelf which, although frozen, were put to excellent use. One of the bottles made its way back to the Brewery and is now a feature of the Guinness museum.

The strength and quality of Guinness ensured that it survived the rigours of long sea voyages, whereas other beers went under. By the 1820s it was being enjoyed on the West and East coasts of Africa, and an agency was set up in Bristol to open up markets in England where by 1860 more Guinness was sold than any other beer. Thirty years earlier Guinness had become the largest brewers in Ireland.

Naturally Guinness followed the great Irish exodus to America(the New York franchise was given to McMullen in 1858) and Australia(starting with bottlers Speakman Bros. of Melbourne in 1869). And the premises at St. James's Gate grew in hand with production. By now the only part of Mr. Rainsford's brewery left standing was the taproom kept for luck like an old horseshoe. It too, however, would soon make way to allow the changes necessary if the brewery was to take its place in the modern world.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century the Guinness brewery became a city within the city of Dublin itself. The size of the property doubled in 1873. The company went public in 1886 inviting investors from all walks of life.

A new brewhouse followed; next came a cooperage, a racking shed, a maltings, an internal railway system, new vathouses and a storehouse for fermenting vessels.

A quarter of a million wooden barrels once stood in the cooperage yard at St. James's Gate, and each and every one of them was handmade and mended by Guinness's own coopers. Coopers ' tools. THE LARGEST BREWERY IN THE WORLD

Along with the technology came the new scientific breed of brewers, and the skills of brewing chemists, administrators and engineers were harnessed for the first time. 19th century hand carved wood block.

Those were days of iron, brass and copper, when men wandered among great machines and wondered at their power

Links were forged with Spence's Cork Street foundry, which installed much of the motive power in the new brewery. Corking Mallet 1818.

As familiar a sound then as the thud of barrels was the plodding clop of patient draught horses now, like wooden casks and their makers, almost vanished from Dublin.

The enlightened proprietor provided social services for his workers which were already a model for future generations of employers.

Such then was the equipment and the ethos with which the Brewery faced the 50 years of violent growth which lifted it by 1914 to first place in the world league. Gold Medal Chicago 1893. Gold Medal Paris 1900.

The first export shipment of Guinness all 6 barrels of it left Dublin on a sailing vessel in 1769, part of a regular shipping line bound for England.

That first modest trickle would soon become a flood and Guinness, fuelled by its reputation and success in Ireland, would eventually need ships of its own solely for the purpose of handling Guinness exports.

The Company's barges were a much-loved feature on the Liffey as they plied the river with their cargo of goodness on the short run between Brewery and Port. Until 1961 hordes of the city's small boys believed that the barrel-laden barges were bound for the Spanish Main or headed off to far exotic lands. From over the bridges and Liffey walls they cheeked the captains with cries of:

Hey, Mister! Bring us back a parrot! (Right) Loading Guinness barges at Victoria Quay, Dublin 1955. By Terence Cuneo.

Horses ' hooves have now been completely replaced on Dublin's cobbled quays by the steady throb of diesel engines from the familiar road tankers, and from the Lady Patricia and Miranda Guinness, the world's first beer tanker ships, which carry their liquid cargo from the centre of Dublin to Liverpool for onward shipment along the waterways of the world.

St. James's Gate now has sister breweries in five countries Britain, Nigeria, Malaysia, Cameroun and Ghana. Guinness is also brewed under licence in the same time-honoured way in a score of other locations, and so today you will find it in no fewer than 120 countries and new markets are being opened up regularly. In fact almost ten million glasses of Guinness are produced around the world every day. Guinness is brewed in 34 countries.

Canada Bahamas Haiti Jamaica Belize Panama Trinidad The Gambia Sierra Leone Liberia Cote D'Ivoire Ghana Togo Nigeria Cameroun Central African Rep. Namibia Rep. of Ireland Great Britain St. Kitts Guadeloupe St. Lucia St. Vincent Grenada Thailand Malaysia Singapore Indonesia Kenya Seychelles Rwanda Australia Mauritius Reunion THIS IS GUINNESS TODAY

During the 1980s Guinness twinned its great core business of brewing with that of distilling. Two cherished centuries-old traditions in one. What a lovely long drink!

Pride in the past, pride in achievement and the constant search for excellence are things that percolate through the Guinness Group and are reflected in its discerning customers everywhere. Through Guinness Brewing Worldwide, The United Distillers Group, and Guinness Enterprises(which includes the Guinness Book of Records, ownership of Gleneagles Hotel, Champney's Spa Resorts, the French gourmet and wine business Hediard, and through its reciprocal shareholding in LMVH, the world's leading luxury goods group), comprises an unparalleled portfolio of premium quality international brands.

But Guinness, above all else, is one of the foremost beverage companies of today, boasting famous names wherever quality comes first. Household words such as: Guinness itself,No. 1 dark beer in the world, Johnnie Walker,No. 1 Scotch in the world, Kaliber No. 1 non-alcoholic beer in the world, Gordon's Gin,No. 1 gin in the USA. And the list goes on, and on, and on

St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin, Mecca of Guinness worldwide and the fountainhead of Arthur's famous dark brew is the world's largest stout brewery.

More than 40 per cent of the output is exported to overseas markets: the equivalent of over 300 million pints annually or almost a million a day. And remember, the least on this property does not expire until 31st December 10,759!

In today's intensely competitive and fast-moving world of brewing the ethic which continues to inspire the great brewery is the proven legacy of Arthur Guinness himself the flexibility to change, no compromise on quality, and forward-looking entrepreneurship. AND HERE IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

Arthur had the foresight to cease brewing ale and concentrate on what mattered most, the perfection of his black porter and stout and the development of distribution networks throughout the British Isles and beyond. Over the centuries the age of steam gave way to electricity, wooden casks changed places with metal kegs, horse drays yielded to motor lorries, barges to road tankers.

Today in order to meet the burgeoning demand for more and more creamy pints of Guinness, St. James's Gate, through the recent investment of IR200 million, has become one of the world's most technologically advanced breweries, having the flexibility to brew virtually anything to the highest international standards. Indeed, as a result of St. James's Gate's strong reputation for international innovation, it was natural that the Research Centre for Guinness Brewing Worldwide should be located in Dublin. Here all research into raw materials, brewing microbiology, new product development, flavour research and analytical methods for Guinness Brewing Worldwide is carried out. GBW RESEARCH CENTRE

And yet the process that produces that hoppy, hearty, malty, mellow flavour, that dark ruby gleam and smooth rich creamy head has hardly changed at all since Arthur rolled up his sleeves to mash his first brew. THE MOST NATURAL THING IN THE WORLD

The only ingredients used in the brewing of Guinness are malted Irish barley for its special sugars, roast barley for the ruby tint, hops for that familiar bitter flavour, yeast to ensure the creamy head, and just a soupon of genius to guarantee the Guinness. Now let us brew a pint of Guinness.

Best home grown Irish barley is converted to malt by germination, while part of the barley is steam cooked and rolled to form flakes.

Some barley and malt is roasted(in a manner similar to coffee beans). This bestows on Guinness its deep ruby darkness. Malt, roast and flakes together make up the Guinness grist.

The grist is weighed and then carefully ground in the Guinness mills. All is now ready for the mash.

The water used in brewing Guinness comes from the catchment areas in the Wicklow Mountains close to where the Liffey rises and is particularly suited to the brewing of stout because of its purity and softness. Mashing the grist with hot water to a porridge-like consistency converts the starches to fermentable sugars.

The brewer must now extract these sugars by adding more hot water and so transfers the mash to a mash-tun.

Mash tuns or Kieves(a Dublin term possibly inherited from the 17th century Huguenot brewers) are essentially great big strainers or filtering vessels where the mash is allowed to stand-in, in much the same way as a pot of tea is allowed to draw. The dark sweet liquid produced at this stage is called WORT. Each kieve has a false bottom made up of interlocking slotted plates which prevent the mash being sucked away when the sweet worts are run off. THE BREWING PROCESS

MALT STORAGE WEIGHER GRIST MILL MASH KIEVE KETTLE WHIRLPOOL OXYGEN FERMENTING VESSEL YEAST CENTRIFUGE MATURATION RACKING

The worts are collected in specially designed 20 tonne giant kettles, to ensure a vigorous mixing and boiling with the hops which are added at this stage. Guinness use hops from the U.S.A., Australia, England and Germany, as well as small amounts from Ireland, to give the brew its characteristically pleasant tanginess of taste.

After boil-off the hopped wort is cooled and oxygenated en route to fermenting vessel where the magic ingredient, yeast, is added. The wort sugars act as a nutrient for the yeast which devours them. In so doing it multiplies many times over and produces alcohol. Just as this same lively and turbulent natural process did for the ancient Egyptians.

From start to finish quality control has always been to the fore at Guinness Dublin where the company has had its own laboratories for over a century.

Fermentation takes about 48 hours and a stout, full-bodied, dark beer is discernable. But we are not ready to dub it Guinness yet. First, all that yeast is removed by centrifuges. Next, the stout must be allowed to mature and condition. This can take anything up to 10 days. When those bright beer brewers are satisfied, the beer qualifies for transfer to Bright Beer Tank.

And eventually, Guinness as we know it, rich subtle and dark, is ready to see the light of day. Nothing could be more natural.

From Keg Plant, Tanker Filling Station and Bottling Hall, Guinness shuffles its endless lines towards its eager audience everywhere from the pub down the road to the farthest point in the antipodes. GUINNESS IS GOOD FOR YOU

Guinness advertising, like the pint itself, has from the beginning fascinated by its uniqueness. As soon as a new campaign appears, people talk about it, discuss it, analyse it. Guinness slogans melt into everyday usage. And the feeling persists that Guinness ads. are undoubtedly different, separate from the rest of the herd.

Why?

Why not ? Guinness is unique. so its advertising has to measure up to that. Take the first ever Guinness ad., which appeared on 2nd February(James Joyce's) birthday), 1929 with the advice:Guinness is Good For You.

Just a straight claim, nothing clever-clever. Yet it remains one of the most fondly remembered lines in the annals of Advertising.

Next came the cartoon characters created by John Gilroy. His famous series of posters of the distraught zookeeper and his mischievous animals carried the line My Goodness, My Guinness and scored another smash hit with Guinness fanciers. From then on one campaign has followed another with that special brand of humour, insight and warmth call it GUINNESSNESS.

When it came to writing slogans James Joyce proved himself no slouch. He suggested replacing Guinness is Good for You with Guinness The Free, The Flow, the Frothy Freshener!

Of course the Guinness advertising exports do have an unfair advantage over their competitors: The product itself. The striking visual appearance of that black and white outline has sparked off innumerable creative ideas. In fact, much of the best Guinness advertising some would say all has centred on the product itself.

For Guinness is a unique experience. There really isn't anything quite like it. Whether it's on T.V., radio, press, posters, or in your glass NO BEER COMES NEAR. AND NOW, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

Small wonder that the presence of Guinness is felt all over Ireland; for Guinness is fully interwoven in the fabric of Irish life, from the farmers who grow the barley to the many artists, musicians and sports people who enjoy the benefits of Guinness's involvement in over 100 festivals and cultural events around Ireland each year. For example

WEXFORD OPERA

It is a well known fact that everyone who drinks Guinness is fond of music. (This is one of the reasons we put a harp on every bottle.) For over a quarter of a century harps have been played and Guinness has been the mainstay, at the prestigious Wexford Opera Festival. This cornucopia of Ireland's premier arts events includes over 15 nights of opera in addition to afternoon recitals and lunchtime and late night concerts.

MAKING AN EXHIBITION OF OURSELVES

The sensitively restored Victorian Guinness Hop Store has established an unrivalled reputation. Not only for the quality of its own World of Guinness display, which is rounded off with traditional sampling of the renowned product in the bar, but also for the sheer beauty, and the quality of light and space of the exhibition galleries.

ROSE OF TRALEE

Probably Ireland's best known festive event by far and Guinness has been its longest and strongest ally is the Rose of Tralee Festival where every year contestants from throughout the world come to Kerry to compete for the coveted Rose of Tralee title.

GUINNESS AND ALL THAT JAZZ

The Guinness Jazz Festival, Europe's friendliest, takes place(indeed takes over) in Cork on the October holiday weekend. Each year a galaxy of international jazz musicians packs every concert hall, hotel, pub and street, so that a memorable foot tapping weekend is assured. A must for all Guinness and music lovers.

MARY FROM DUNGLOE

In Donegal town every July or August Marys from around the world battle it out in the most amicable ladylike way for the highly prized Mary from Dungloe title.

BELFAST FESTIVAL

One of the most expressive highlights of the vibrant and thriving cultural life of Belfast is the annual Belfast Festival which has enjoyed Guinness support for many years.

GALWAY RACES

It's hard to believe that the first meeting of the Galway Races took place at Ballybrit Race Course in 1869; and it immediately so fired the public imagination that it has been a major fixture on the Irish racing calendar ever since. For over a quarter of a century now one of the favourite centrepieces of the week has been, and continues to be, the Guinness sponsored Galway Hurdle.

GALWAY OYSTERS

Given the traditional association of Guinness and oysters, and the sublime combination of the two, it is not surprising to find Guinness so strongly supportive of that great European favourite,The Galway International Oyster Festival, every September. Pity the poor golfer who never had a Guinness.

From that day in 1862, when Guinness adopted the traditional Irish harp as its trade mark, a symbolic seal was set on the special bond between Guinness and Ireland.

For Guinnessness and Irishness go hand in hand, or glass in hand, and mean a good deal more than an island of soft green hues and a drink that's a subtle black and white. FORTY SHADES OF GUINNESS

Guinness plays a key role in the Irish economy where an immense contribution is made each year; for instance, over IR200 million is spent annually on the wages and salaries bill for its 3,000 employees up and down the country, along with the purchase of home grown raw materials and other requirements for its operations in the Republic.

Add to this the duties and taxes on Guinness Group products sold in Ireland each year(currently running at around IR400 million) and you get some idea of what the grand total must to be.

For apart from St. James's Gate Brewery, Guinness owns and operates the Harp Lager Brewery at Dundalk, and the Irish Ale breweries of Smithwick's in Kilkenny, Macardle Moore's in Dundalk and Cherry's in Waterford. In these centres of Guinness activity a vast array of sprightly popular golden ales and cool satisfying blonde lagers are brewed(some under licence from other brewers of international standing like Frstenberg, Carlsberg and Budweiser).

And in addition to Guinness's Meadow Meats(of Rathdowney, Co. Laois) which exports all of its output to markets in the U.K., Germany, Italy, there is something else. That great Irish natural resource, the River Shannon, is home to Guinness's 150-strong Emerald Star Line fleet, which operates the country's finest state-of-the-art cruisers on what is Europe's last great unpolluted waterway. THE PERFECT PARTNERSHIP

The special association between Guinness and food is a long standing one, indeed has been the fashion since 1759. And no wonder. Finished in attractive black with contrasting white top, it fits well into any surroundings, is easily portable, easily drinkable, and available in a variety of sizes. It comes with a knock down tag of a mere 94 calories per glass.

The taste of Guinness produces a fleeting dryness that makes it a most agreeable way to put an edge on an appetite. At lunchtime a cool glass of Guinness, with that gentle hint of hops animates the taste buds balancing and enlivening the subtle taste of fine cheeses. No ploughman's lunch is quite complete without that deep dark taste. While standing elegantly beside a crisp colourful salad, the black and white is always just right. BESTSELLER

Guinness, now well into its third century, has long been a collector's item in bars around the globe, being elevated to immortality by writers and poets wherever they find it. A bestseller in its own write and no work of fiction either Guinness has inspired a library of literary allusions to the brewery, the family and the product the world over.

James Joyce called it The Wine of the Country. A true reflection of the high cultural status Guinness has achieved in its native land.

Licking the suds from our lips, we regarded each other with benevolence. RAY BRADBURY The Anthem Sprinters Let us find that pint of porter place Benjamin's Lea and see the foamous homely brew, bebattled by bottle then put a James's Gate in my hand.

JAMES JOYCE Finnegans Wake

No, I won't have any more of this foreign beer. My stomach won't stand it. Ask them haven't they got a Guinness. I'd just fancy a Guinness. GRAHAM GREENE Stamboul Train I got my eddication holdin' horses in Sackville Street, and learned me letters spellin' the Guinness advertisements. Ye wouldn't believe it, me that reads Playto like a scholar.

A. J. CRONIN Grand Canary When money's tight and is hard to get And your horse has also ran, When all you have is a heap of debt A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

BRIAN O'NOLAN(Flann O'Brien)At Swim two Birds AVAILABLE FROM BARSHELF TO BOOKSHELF

With Guinness, as everyone knows, familiarity breeds content, Is it not somewhat sad, then, that the great Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin and author of Gulliver's Travels, who was familiar with stout, had the misfortune to be born too soon in history and was therefore denied the contentment of a glass of Guinness?

It is true that his young contemporaries, like Edmond Burke and Oliver Goldsmith and indeed later generations of great Irish writers like Maria Edgeworth, Oscar Wilde, Dion Boucicault, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, may not have been in the habit of regularly frequenting pubs. (They preferred entertaining at home.)

However they were all acquainted with Guinness in one way or another, either through friendships with the family or familiarity with the product itself. Boucicault, for instance, author of The Colleen Bawn,The Shaughraun and many other classic Victorian melodramas, started out as a clerk in the Brewery at St. James's Gate.

Oscar's father, the great oculist and antiquarian Sir William Wilde, loved sharing a bottle of Guinness with his medical colleagues. Oliver St. John Gogarty, who once prevailed upon Yeats to visit Toner's pub in Baggot Street, was the man who introduced James Joyce to Guinness. In The Playboy of the Western World John Millington Synge's characters are well used to the sound of corks popping from Guinness bottles. In the course of his letters, the man from Synge Street, Dublin, G. B. Shaw, alludes to the Guinness restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Sean O'Casey enjoyed his pints of Guinness in Cleary's pub under the railway arch in Amiens Street, as he plotted the layout of the bar scene in The Plough and the Stars.

The mid-century generation of writers such as Brendan Behan, Brian O'Nolan and Patrick Kavanagh will always be associated with pints of plain in McDaids or The Palace Bar. While Samuel Beckett first made his acquaintance with Guinness in Mooney's of Abbey Street during his Trinity days. Beckett, who fine-toned his philosophy of life to its very essentials, not surprisingly remained a Guinness drinker to the end.

And isn't it nice to know that in Ireland the flow of words, like the flow of Guinness goes on! LORDS OF THE VAT

More than a quarter of a millennium of Guinnesses; every one at the head of the company and everyone a direct descendant of Elizabeth and Richard Guinness(1)(c. 16901766) of Celbridge, Co. Kildare, who as they smiled on their first born son in 1725 decided to christen him Arthur,(2)(17251803) after his godfather and benefactor Archbishop Arthur Price of Cashel.

Although primarily a banker(he became Governor of the Bank of Ireland in 1820) Arthur Guinness the second(3)(17681855) was responsible for steering the company through the recessionary years following the Napoleonic Wars.

His son Benjamin Lee(17981868) whose interest in politics and public life was rewarded when he became Lord Mayor of Dublin, later went on to represent the city as a Member of Parliament. His life-long passion for his native city was further demonstrated when in 1860 he donated the then huge sum of 150,000 towards the restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The close bonds between the brewery and Dublin were further strengthened during Edward Cecil's(5) lifetime(18471927). He became the first Earl of Iveagh, and set up the Guinness and Iveagh Trusts which provided homes for the poor in Dublin and London, and made substantial contributions to Trinity College and Dublin hospitals. He was also a model employer. His brother Arthur,(Lord Ardilaun) landscaped St. Stephen's Green, once a medieval common, and threw it open to the public.

On Edward Cecil's death in 1927 the chairmanship devolved on his son Rupert Guinness(6)(18741967), whose major achievements were in the field of Agricultural Research. Dairying in particular occupied the second Earl's attention and his own dairy herds were a lifelong passion.

Happily, his improving spirit also benefitted the brewery and during his chairmanship demand for Guinness began to outstrip the production capacities of St. James's Gate. So the first overseas brewery was built at Park Royal, London, in 1936. [William Sealy Gossett(7)(Student), the father of modern statistics, was appointed first Head Brewer by Appointment to His Majesty King George VI.

Today the President of Guinness PLC is Benjamin Guinness(8)(b. 1937), the third Earl of Iveagh and the sixth direct descendant of the man who made it all possible, over two hundred years ago. Arthur Guinness, brewer of St. James's Gate WHAT COMES NATURALLY AFTER DARK? IN A GLASS OF ITS OWN Here, by St. James's Gate, my soul's canal, no longer time-locked, re-emerges, flows. Flows, knows the tug of memory, of forget The smell of Brewer's malt. Compulsive. Absolute. As time. Or space. Or wonder. Ecstasy. Here I was happy once till ten years old. Seduced by wooden barges, wooden barrels. Expertly coopered, hooped. Expertly stacked. Demanding to be looked at. Savoured. Scanned with the mind's eye. Days, days of silk. Of metal. Of Iron. Copper. Timber. Tar. Hemp. Brick. Days of great horses, leather-harnessed, cobbling along the Liffey's quays to Dublin Port. Past bridges. Waste-lots. Swing-boats. Tenements. Past betting shops. Past pubs. Past Four Court dominant as church bells. Hawkers ' cries. Steepled Cathedral. Past antiques shops. Brass makers. Chandlers. Upholsterers. Past book shops. Woollenmills. Stooped women hobbling black-shawled to Mass or Iveagh Market. Closetting their hurt in quiet worship, salty banter. Past seagulls, sea-foam white. Past starlings circling at dusk by sky-asserting chimney. Monuments. By stone-faced Bank. Gasometer. By Custom House. Past childhood's ken to adult's sombre zen. Zen and the Art of Makebelieve maybe. Naming things(one singer sings) is the love-act and its pledge. Oh, let me name that Brewer's smell's constituents: Hops. Barley. Water. Yeast. And human touch The touch that quivers to a new identity.

From Basil Payne's A Portrait of the Artist as a Revenant Visionary, by arrangement