Guinness announces second Arthur’s Day

A man from Leixlip in Co. Kildare told me a story once: Arthur Guinness was a butler for the Lord and Lady of Leixlip. Back in those times (1700’s), it was one of the butler’s jobs to make beer for the big social occasions in their castle. One night, Arthur made a mistake in making the beer – he burnt the hops. Instead of brown beer he got this black product. However, it was too late to do another brew for the occasion and the dark drink was served to the guests. It went down a treat with them and thereafter Arthur was told to burn the hops every time he made beer. He was later allowed to sell the black stuff outside an entrance gate to the Leixlip castle estate for a halfpenny a go. The gate in Leixlip can still be seen to this day. So Arthur made his money and started his own business. I have to add that this story does not appear in the Storehouse historical displays.

I agree with George below on this. The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions and I would put that down to the brand name and tourists’ association with the undeserved image of drunks in Ireland. The Storehouse is actually fantastic and worth a visit.

In a survey of what was ireland's greatest contribution to the world, a lot of Irish people said "Guinness". If you go to the tourist joints in Ireland you'll see whole sections taken over by Guinness products. It always saddens me when I see the Irish identify their nation & culture by a beer. It's shameful and shows what a bastardized and vulgar culture Ireland has created.