Guinness and Irish Pub Culture

Entrance to Guinness Factory

      Undeniably, a large part of Irish culture can be experienced in a pub. It is this fact that makes Ireland famous for its drinking and pub culture. And what better way to socialize in a pub than over a pint of Guinness? After all it is a surviving symbol of the legendarily successful Arthur Guinness born in County Kildare in 1725 and Godson to Archbishop of Cashel, Reverend Arthur Price. Consequently, it is Archbishop Price that left Arthur with the £100 needed to sign a 9,000-year lease in 1759 for a disused brewery at St. James Gate, Dublin. The lease contains water rights, four acres of land including a copper, a kieve, a mill, two malt houses, a stable for 12 horses, and a loft to hold 200 tons of hay. 

And thus, ‘it begins with a signature.’

9,000-year Lease

Arthur Guinness

      Between 1759 and 1769, Arthur began brewing porter and ale before his first export of six and a half barrels of Guinness on a sailing vessel bound for England. Just over 50 years later, Guinness becomes increasingly known worldwide and by 1840 the first shipment is sent to New York. By 1906, Guinness is home to 3,240 employees equaling to about 10,000 Dubliners or 1 in 30 of the population of Dublin being dependent on the Guinness brewery for their livelihood. Astonishingly, by 1914 the brewery’s output reaches 3 million barrels and just under 100 years later in 2001, the world has drunk two billion pints of Guinness. Finally, in 2009 Guinness celebrated its 250 birthday.

      However, the legacy of Guinness isn’t the only reason for the popularity of Ireland’s pub life. Pubs in Ireland are a warm and welcoming spot for tourists and strangers to meet the locals and explore the local folklore stories, traditional Irish music and dancing, and all this is free of charge. That is why the approximately 10,000 pubs in Ireland are visited more than any in the world. Perhaps more fascinating is the fact that Ireland’s most famous poets, Joyce, Beckett, Wilde, and Behan all wrote stories in which the center is a pub and rumor has it that they sometimes found inspiration there as well. 

    I feel very fortunate to have experienced the warmness of the oldest pub in Dublin, The Brazen Head, among many others that the city has to offer. I am usually more of an observer when I am in a new place, because that is the best way to get the true feel for the atmosphere. Pub culture is very different than the 'bar scene' in the United States in that if you are there long enough, you are left with the local people who have grown up with each other and seem to know everyone in the place. Not only that, in the wee hours of the night after a few pints with their lads, you can experience the wonder of traditional Irish music as sung for generations. Ireland's pubs are genuinely like no place else on in the world.