One of the highlights of the past seven days was a lovely visit of the Guinness® Storehouse in Dublin. Since this week is National Heritage Week, E. managed to get free tickets for the talk 'The Goodness of Guinness' at the Guinness Archive.
Tony Corcoran, a Guinness pensioner, spent an hour with us telling the story of the Guinness employees and their families as well as stories about the Guinness family (for example, we learned that St Stephen's Green used to be a private park but thanks to Sir Arthur Edward Guinness, it was given to the citizens of Dublin for public use). We all enjoyed listening to those stories told by a man whose grandfather and father also worked for Guinness. At the end of the talk, some of the visitors shared a bit of their own experience. A lady, for example, told us how when she gave birth in the 1970's, she was given to drink a nourishing pint of Guinness and a glass of milk after her baby was born. Obviously, this is not something you should expect to happen in hospitals nowadays...
Mr Corcoran did a lot of research in the Guinness Archive and he is also the author of the book 'The Goodness of Guinness: A Loving History of the Brewery, It's People, and the City of Dublin'.
After the talk, we were all given complimentary passes to the Guinness Storehouse.