Guinness ( /ˈɡɪnɨs/ GIN-is) is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. It is brewed in almost 50 countries and is available in over 100.^[1] 850 million litres (1.5 billion imperial or 1.8 billion US pints) are sold annually.^[1]

A distinctive feature is the burnt flavour that is derived from roasted unmalted barley (though this is a relatively modern development since it did not become a part of the grist until well into the 20th century). For many years a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed product to give a sharp lactic flavour. Although the Guinness palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen when poured. It is popular with Irish people both in Ireland and abroad, and, in spite of a decline in consumption since 2001,^[2] is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland ^[3][4] where Guinness & Co. makes almost €2 billion annually.

The company had its headquarters in London from 1932 onwards. It merged with Grand Metropolitan plc in 1997 and then figured in the development of the multi-national alcohol conglomerate Diageo.

History[link]

Sign at the Market Street entrance

Arthur Guinness started brewing ales from 1759 at the St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin. On 31 December 1759 he signed (up to) a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum for the unused brewery.^[5][6][7] Ten years later, on 19 May 1769, Guinness first exported his ale: he shipped six-and-a-half barrels to Great Britain.

"Stout" originally referred to a beer's strength, but eventually shifted meaning toward body and colour.^[8]

Arthur Guinness started selling the dark beer porter in 1778.^[9] The first Guinness beers to use the term were Single Stout and Double Stout in the 1840s.^[10] Throughout the bulk of its history, Guinness produced 'only three variations of a single beer type: porter or single stout, double or extra and foreign stout for export'.^[11]

Already one of the top-three British and Irish brewers, Guinness's sales soared from 350,000 barrels in 1868 to 779,000 barrels in 1876.^[11] In October 1886 Guinness became a public company, and was averaging sales of 1,138,000 barrels a year. This was despite the brewery's refusal to either advertise or offer its beer at a discount.^[11] Even though Guinness owned no public houses, the company was valued at £6 million and shares were twenty times oversubscribed, with share prices rising to a 60% premium on the first day of trading.^[11]

The breweries pioneered several quality control efforts. The brewery hired the statistician William Sealy Gosset in 1899, who achieved lasting fame under the pseudonym "Student" for techniques developed for Guinness, particularly Student's t-distribution and the even more commonly known Student's t-test.

By 1900 the brewery was operating unparalleled welfare schemes for its 5000 employees.^[11] By 1907 the welfare schemes were costing the brewery £40,000 a year, which was one fifth of the total wages bill.^[11] The improvements were suggested and supervised by Sir John Lumsden.

By 1914, Guinness was producing 2,652,000 barrels of beer a year, which was more than double that of its nearest competitor Bass, and was supplying more than 10% of the total UK beer market.^[11]

In the 1930s, Guinness became the seventh largest company in the world.^[12]

Before 1939, if a Guinness brewer wished to marry a Catholic, his resignation was requested.^[12]

Guinness brewed their last porter in 1973.^[8]

In the 1970s, following declining sales, the decision was taken to make Guinness Extra Stout more "drinkable". The gravity was subsequently reduced, and the brand was relaunched in 1981.^[13] Pale malt was used for the first time, and isomerized hop extract began to be used.^[14]

Guinness acquired the Distillers Company in 1986.^[15] This led to a scandal over a £5.2 million kickback received during the takeover bid to one of the directors, Mr Ward, approved by the chairman, Mr Saunders.^{[clarification needed]} In the case Guinness plc v Saunders the House of Lords declared that the payment had been invalid.

The company merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997 to form Diageo PLC.^[16] Due to controversy over the merger, the company was maintained as a separate entity within the Diageo and has retained the rights to the product and all associated trademarks of Guinness. The Guinness brewery in Park Royal, London closed in 2005. The production of all Guinness sold in the UK and Ireland was moved to St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin.^[17]

Guinness has also been referred to as "the black stuff"^[18] and as a "Pint of Plain" - referred to in the famous refrain of Flann O'Brien's poem "The Workman's Friend": "A pint of plain is your only man."^[19]

Guinness had a fleet of ships, barges and yachts.^[20]

Controversy over proposed sale of St James's Gate[link]

The Sunday Independent reported on 17 June 2007 that Diageo intended to close the historic St James's Gate plant in Dublin and moving to a greenfield site on the outskirts of the city.^[21] This news caused some controversy when it was announced.

The following day, the Irish Daily Mail ran a follow-up story with a double page spread complete with images and a history of the plant since 1759. Initially, Diageo said that talk of a move was pure speculation but in the face of mounting speculation in the wake of the Sunday Independent article, the company confirmed that it is undertaking a "significant review of its operations". This review is largely due to the efforts of the company's ongoing drive to reduce the environmental impact of brewing at the St James's Gate plant.^[22]

On 23 November 2007, an article appeared in the Evening Herald, a Dublin newspaper, stating that Dublin City Council, in the best interests of the city of Dublin, had put forward a motion to prevent planning permission ever being granted for development of the site thus making it very difficult for Diageo to sell off the site for residential development.

On 9 May 2008, Diageo announced that the St James's Gate brewery will remain open and undergo renovations, but that breweries in Kilkenny and Dundalk will be closed by 2013 when a new larger brewery is opened near Dublin. The result will be a loss of roughly 250 jobs across the entire Diageo/Guinness workforce in Ireland.^[23] Two days later, the Sunday Independent again reported that Diageo chiefs had met with Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, the deputy leader of the Government of Ireland, about moving operations to Ireland from the UK to benefit from its lower corporation tax rates. Several UK firms have made the move to pay Ireland's 12.5 percent rate rather than the UK's 28 percent rate.^[24] Diageo released a statement to the London stock exchange denying the report.^[25] Despite the merger that created Diageo plc in 1997, Guinness has retained its right to the Guinness brand and associated trademarks and thus continues to trade under the traditional Guinness name despite trading under the corporation name Diageo for a brief period in 1997.

Composition[link]

Guinness stout is made from water, barley, hops, and brewer's yeast. A portion of the barley is roasted to give Guinness its dark colour and characteristic taste. It is pasteurised and filtered. Despite its reputation as a "meal in a glass", Guinness only contains 198 kcal (838 kilojoules) per imperial pint (1460 kJ/l),^[26] fewer than skimmed milk or orange juice and most other non-light beers.

Until the late 1950s Guinness was still racked into wooden casks. In the late 1950s and early 1960s aluminium kegs began replacing the wooden casks; these were nicknamed "iron lungs".^[27]

Draught Guinness and its canned counterpart contain nitrogen (N₂) as well as carbon dioxide. Nitrogen is less soluble than carbon dioxide, which allows the beer to be put under high pressure without making it fizzy. The high pressure of dissolved gas is required to enable very small bubbles to be formed by forcing the draught beer through fine holes in a plate in the tap, which causes the characteristic "surge" (the widget in cans and bottles achieves the same effect). The perceived smoothness of draught Guinness is due to its low level of carbon dioxide and the creaminess of the head caused by the very fine bubbles that arise from the use of nitrogen and the dispensing method described above. "Original Extra Stout" contains only carbon dioxide,^[28] causing a more acidic taste.

Contemporary Guinness Draught and Extra Stout are weaker than they were in the 19th century, when they had an original gravity of over 1.070. Foreign Extra Stout and Special Export Stout, with abv of 7.5% and 9% respectively, are perhaps closest to the original in character.^[29]

Although Guinness may appear to be black, it is officially a very dark shade of ruby.^[30]

Bottle conditioned Guinness Extra Stout was available in the UK until 1994, and in Ireland until early 2000.^[31]

Guinness and health[link]

Pint of Guinness

Studies claim that Guinness can be beneficial to the heart. Researchers found that "'antioxidant compounds' in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls."^[32][33]

Guinness ran an advertising campaign in the 1920s which stemmed from market research - when people told the company that they felt good after their pint, the slogan was born – "Guinness is Good for You". This type of advertising for alcoholic drinks that implies improved physical performance or enhanced personal qualities is now prohibited in Ireland.^[34] Diageo, the company that now manufactures Guinness, says: "We never make any medical claims for our drinks."^[35]

The production of Guinness, as with many beers, involves the use of isinglass made from fish. Isinglass is used as a fining agent for settling out suspended matter in the vat. The isinglass is retained in the floor of the vat but it is possible that minute quantities might be carried over into the beer.^{[36][37][38][39]}

Varieties[link]

Guinness Original/Extra Stout

Guinness stout is available in a number of variants and strengths, which include:

• Guinness Draught, sold in kegs, widget cans, and bottles: 4.1 to 4.3% alcohol by volume (ABV); the Extra Cold is served through a super cooler at 3.5°C (38.3°F).^[40]
• Guinness Original/Extra Stout: 4.2 or 4.3% ABV in Ireland and the rest of Europe, 4.1% in Germany, 4.8% in Namibia and South Africa), 5% in the United States and Canada, and 6% in Australia and Japan.
• Guinness Foreign Extra Stout: 7.5% ABV version sold in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, and the United States. The basis is an unfermented but hopped Guinness wort extract shipped from Dublin, which is added to local ingredients and fermented locally. The strength can vary, for example, it is sold at 5% ABV in China, 6.5% ABV in Jamaica and East Africa, 6.8% in Malaysia, 7.5% in the United States, and 8% ABV in Singapore.^[41][42] In Nigeria a proportion of sorghum is used. Foreign Extra Stout is blended with a small amount of intentionally soured beer.^[43] It was previously known as West Indies Porter, then Extra Stout and finally Foreign Extra Stout.^[12] It was first made available in the UK in 1990.^[12]
• Guinness Special Export Stout, Commissioned by John Martin of Belgium in 1912.^[44] The first variety of Guinness to be pasteurised, in 1930.^[45] 8% ABV.
• Guinness Bitter, an English-style bitter beer: 4.4% ABV.
• Guinness Extra Smooth, a smoother stout sold in Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria: 5.5% ABV.
• Malta Guinness, a non-alcoholic sweet drink, produced in Nigeria and exported to the UK, East Africa, and Malaysia.
• Guinness Mid-Strength, a low-alcohol stout test-marketed in Limerick, Ireland in March 2006^[46] and Dublin from May 2007:^[47] 2.8% ABV.
• Kaliber, a premium alcohol-free lager. It is brewed as a full strength lager; then at the end of the brewing process, the alcohol is removed: 0.05% ABV.
• Guinness Red, brewed in exactly the same way as Guinness except that the barley is only lightly roasted so that it produces a lighter, slightly fruitier red ale; test-marketed in Britain in February 2007: 4.1% ABV.^[48]
• 250 Anniversary Stout, released in the U.S., Australia and Singapore on 24 April 2009;^[49] 5% ABV.

In October 2005, Guinness announced the Brewhouse Series, a limited-edition collection of draught stouts available for roughly six months each. There were three beers in the series.

• Brew 39 was sold in Dublin from late 2005 until early 2006. It had the same alcohol content (ABV) as Guinness Draught, used the same gas mix and settled in the same way, but had a slightly different taste. Many found it to be lighter in taste,^[50] somewhat closer to Beamish stout^[51] than standard Irish Guinness.^[52]
• Toucan Brew was introduced in May 2006. It was named after the cartoon toucan used in many Guinness advertisements. This beer had a crisper taste with a slightly sweet aftertaste due to its triple-hopped brewing process.
• North Star was introduced in October 2006 and sold until into late 2007. Three million pints of North Star were sold in the latter half of 2007.^[53]

Despite an announcement in June 2007 that the fourth Brewhouse stout would be launched in October that year,^[54] no new beer appeared and, at the end of 2007, the Brewhouse series appeared to have been quietly cancelled.

In March 2006, Guinness introduced the "surger" in Britain. The surger is a plate-like electrical device meant for the home. It sends ultrasonic waves through a Guinness-filled pint glass to recreate the beer's "surge and settle" effect. The device works in conjunction with special cans of surger-ready Guinness. Guinness tried out a primitive version of this system in 1977 in New York. The idea was abandoned until 2003, when it began testing the surger in Japanese bars, most of which are too small to accommodate traditional keg-and-tap systems. Since then, the surger has been introduced to bars in Paris. Surgers are also in use in Australia and Athens, Greece. The surger for the US market was announced on 14 November 2007; plans were to make the unit available to bars only.^[55] As of 2011, however hard to find, the surger is available for purchase both for bars and regular customers.

Withdrawn Guinness variants include Guinness's Brite Lager, Guinness's Brite Ale, Guinness Light, Guinness XXX Extra Strong Stout, Guinness Cream Stout, Guinness Gold, Guinness Pilsner, Guinness Breó (a slightly citrusy wheat beer), Guinness Shandy, and Guinness Special Light.

Breó (meaning 'glow' in ancient Irish) was a wheat beer; it cost around IR£5 million to develop.

For a short time in the late 1990s, Guinness produced the "St James's Gate" range of craft-style beers, available in a small number of Dublin pubs. The beers were: Pilsner Gold, Wicked Red Ale, Wildcat Wheat Beer and Dark Angel Lager.

A brewing byproduct of Guinness, Guinness Yeast Extract (GYE), was produced until the 1950s. In the UK, an HP Guinness Sauce has recently been made available, manufactured by Heinz.^[56] Kraft also licenses the name for its Barbecue sauce product, Bull's-Eye Barbecue Sauce.

In March 2010, Guinness began test marketing Guinness Black Lager, a new black lager, in Northern Ireland and Malaysia.^[57] As of September 2010, Guinness Black Lager is no longer readily available in Malaysia. In October, 2010, Guinness began selling Foreign Extra Stout in 4 packs of bottles in the United States.^[58]

Pouring and serving[link]

An example of the newly designed Guinness pint glass released in 2010.

What Diageo calls the "perfect pint" of Draught Guinness is the product of a "double pour", which according to the company should take 119.53 seconds.^[59] Guinness has promoted this wait with advertising campaigns such as "good things come to those who wait". Draught Guinness should be served at 6°C (42.8°F),^[60] while Extra Cold Guinness should be served at 3.5°C (38.6°F).^[61]

A pint of Guinness should be served in a slightly tulip shaped pint glass (as opposed to the taller European tulip glass or 'Nonic' glass, which contains a ridge approx 3/4 of the way up the glass). On the way to the tap, the beer is passed through a chiller and is forced through a five-hole disc restrictor plate in the end of the tap, which increases the fluid pressure and friction, forcing the creation of small bubbles which form a creamy head. The glass is then rested until the initial pour settles, and the remainder of the glass is then filled with a slow pour until the head forms a slight dome over the top of the glass.^[62]

Canned Draught Guinness should be poured into a large glass in one smooth action, while bottled Draught Guinness should be drunk straight from the bottle.^[63]

In April 2010, Guinness redesigned the Guinness pint glass for the first time in a decade. The new glass is taller and narrower than the previous one and features a bevel design. The new glasses are planned to gradually replace the old ones.^[64]

Sinking bubbles[link]

A long time subject of bar conversations is the Guinness cascade, where the gas bubbles appear to travel downwards in a pint glass of Guinness.^[65]

The effect is attributed to drag; bubbles that touch the walls of a glass are slowed in their travel upwards. Bubbles in the centre of the glass are, however, free to rise to the surface, and thus form a rising column of bubbles. The rising bubbles create a current by the entrainment of the surrounding fluid. As beer rises in the centre, the beer near the outside of the glass falls. This downward flow pushes the bubbles near the glass towards the bottom. Although the effect occurs in any liquid, it is particularly noticeable in any dark nitrogen stout, as the drink combines dark-coloured liquid and light-coloured bubbles.^[66][67]

Culinary uses[link]

Guinness is frequently used as an ingredient in recipes, often to add a seemingly authentic Irish element to the menus of faux-Irish pubs^[68] in the United States, where it is stirred into everything from french toast to beef stew.^[63]

A popular, authentic, Irish course featuring Guinness is the "Guinness and Steak Pie." The recipe includes many common Irish herbs, as well as beef brisket, cheeses, and a can of Guinness.^[69]

Advertising[link]

It has been said that Guinness uses the harp of Brian Boru as its trademark. However there are differences between the logo and the Brian Boru harp. This harp, dating from the 14th or 15th century, which is on view at Trinity College, Dublin, has been a symbol of Ireland since the reign of Henry VIII (16th century). Guinness adopted the harp as a logo in 1862; however, it faces right instead of left, and so can be distinguished from the Irish coat of arms.

Since the 1930s in the face of falling sales, Guinness has had a long history of marketing campaigns, from award-winning television advertisements to beer mats and posters. Before then, Guinness had almost no advertising, instead allowing for word of mouth to sell the product.^[70]

Guinness's iconic stature is partly due to its advertising. The most notable and recognisable series of adverts was created by Benson's advertising, primarily drawn by the artist John Gilroy, in the 1930s and '40s. Benson created posters that included phrases such as "Guinness for Strength", "Lovely Day for a Guinness", "Guinness Makes You Strong," "My Goodness My Guinness," (or, alternatively, "My Goodness, My Christmas, It's Guinness!") and most famously, "Guinness is Good For You". The posters featured Gilroy's distinctive artwork and more often than not featured animals such as a kangaroo, ostrich, seal, lion and notably a toucan, which has become as much a symbol of Guinness as the harp. (An advertisement from the 1940s ran with the following jingle: "Toucans in their nests agree/Guinness is good for you/Try some today and see/What one or toucan do.") Dorothy L. Sayers and Bobby Bevan copywriters at Benson's also worked on the campaign; a biography of Sayers notes that she created a sketch of the toucan and wrote several of the adverts in question. Guinness advertising paraphernalia, notably the pastiche booklets illustrated by Ronald Ferns, attract high prices on the collectible market.^{[71][page needed]}

Many of the best known Guinness television commercials of the 1970s and 1980s were created by British director, Len Fulford.^[72]

In 1983 a conscious marketing decision was made to turn Guinness into a "cult" beer in the UK, amidst declining sales.^[73] The move was judged successful, halting the sales decline, and Guinness has arguably been marketed as a cult beer in the UK and America ever since. The Guardian described the management of the brand:

"they've spent years now building a brand that's in complete opposition to cheap lagers, session drinking and crowds of young men boozing in bars. They've worked very hard to help Guinness drinkers picture themselves as twinkly-eyed, Byronic bar-room intellectuals, sitting quietly with a pint and dreaming of poetry and impossibly lovely redheads running barefoot across the peat. You have a pint or two of Guinness with a slim volume of Yeats, not eight mates and a 19 pint bender which ends in tattoos, A&E and herpes from a hen party."^[74]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s in the UK there was a multi-award-winning series of "darkly" humorous adverts, featuring actor Rutger Hauer, with the theme "Pure Genius", extolling its qualities in brewing and target market.

The 1994–1995 Anticipation campaign, featuring actor Joe McKinney dancing to "Guaglione" by Perez Prado while his pint settled, became a legend in Ireland and put the song to number one in the charts for several weeks. The advertisement was also popular in the UK where the song reached number two.

In 2000, Guinness's 1999 advertisement Surfer was named the best television commercial of all time in a UK poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4. This advertisement is inspired by the famous 1980s Guinness TV and cinema ad, "Big Wave", centred on a surfer riding a wave while a bikini-clad sun bather takes photographs. The 1980s advertisement not only remained a popular iconic image in its own right but also entered the Irish cultural memory through inspiring a well known line in Christy Moore's 1985 song "Delirium Tremens". Surfer was produced by the advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO; the advertisement can be downloaded from their website.^[75]

Guinness won the 2001 Clio Award as the Advertiser of the Year, citing the work of five separate ad agencies around the world.^[76]

In 2003 the Guinness TV campaign featuring Tom Crean won the gold Shark Award at the International Advertising Festival of Ireland,^[77] while in 2005 their Irish Christmas campaign took a silver Shark.^[78] This TV ad has been run every Christmas since 2003 and features pictures of snow falling in places around Ireland, evoking the James Joyce story The Dead, finishing at St. James's Gate Brewery with the line "Even at the home of the black stuff they dream of a white one".

Their UK commercial noitulovE, first broadcast in October 2005, was the most-awarded commercial worldwide in 2006^[79] In it, three men drink a pint of Guinness, then begin to both walk and evolve backward. Their 'reverse evolution' passes through an ancient homo sapiens, a monkey, a flying lemur, a pangolin, an ichthyosaur and a velociraptor until finally settling on a mud skipper drinking dirty water, which then expresses its disgust at the taste of the stuff, followed by the line "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait". The official name of the ad is "Noitulove"—which is "Evolution" backwards. This was later modified to have a different endings to advertise Guinness Extra Cold, often shown as "break bumpers" at the beginning and end of commercial breaks. The second endings show either the homo sapiens being suddenly frozen in a block of ice, the ichthyasaurs being frozen while swimming, or the pool of muddy water freezing over as the mud skipper takes a sip, freezing his tongue to the surface.

Two further adverts in 2006 and early 2007, "Hands" and "St Patricks Hands" were created by animator "Michael Schlingmann for Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. They feature a pair of hands, animated in "stop motion" under a rostrum camera. "Hands" focuses on the 119.53 seconds it takes to pour a pint and "St Patricks Hands is a spoof of "Riverdance", with the animated hands doing the dancing.

Guinness's 2007 advert, directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and filmed in Argentina is titled "Tipping Point". It involves a large-scale domino chain-reaction and, with a budget of £10m, is the most expensive advertisement for the company so far.^[80][81]

And in 2009, the "To Arthur" advert, which started with two friends realising the long history, hail each other by lifting up their glass and saying "to Arthur!". The hailing slowing spread throughout the bar itself to the streets outside, which accuminates to around the world. The advert end with the voiceover, "Join the worldwide celebration, of a man named Arthur".^[82]

The latest advert is a discordic musical inside the pint, with the new slogan "17:59, it's Guinness time".

The event is now known as Guinness Arthur's Day. "Arthur's Day is a series of events and celebrations taking place around the world to celebrate the life and legacy of Arthur Guinness and the much-loved Guinness® beer which Arthur brought to the world."^[83] It took place for the third time at 17:59pm on 22 September 2011.

Worldwide sales[link]

A pint of Guinness with a slice of wheaten bread and butter.

Sales of Guinness in Ireland and the United Kingdom declined 7% in 2006.^[84] Despite this, Guinness still accounts for more than a quarter of all beer sold in Ireland.^[85]

Guinness has a significant share of the African beer market, where Guinness has been sold since 1827. About 40% of worldwide total Guinness volume is brewed and sold in Africa, with Foreign Extra Stout the most popular variant. The Michael Power advertising campaign was a critical success for Guinness in Africa, running for nearly a decade before being replaced in 2006 with "Guinness Greatness".

Guinness Stout is brewed under licence internationally in several countries, including Nigeria,^[86][87] the Bahamas, Canada,^[88] and Indonesia.^[89] The unfermented but hopped Guinness wort extract is shipped from Dublin and blended with beer brewed locally.

The UK is the only sovereign state to consume more Guinness than Ireland, and the third largest Guinness drinking nation is Nigeria, followed by the USA.^[90] The United States consumed more than 950,000 hectolitres of Guinness in 2010.^[91]

Merchandising[link]

During Saint Patrick's Day outside Ireland, Guinness merchandise is available in many places that sell the drink. Merchandise includes clothing and hats, often available from behind the bar after a specified number of pints of Guinness have been purchased. In addition it is possible to purchase branded merchandise online at the Guinness Webstore.

There is a popular tourist attraction for Guinness at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, called the Guinness Storehouse, where a self-guided tour of the attraction starts with an overview of the ingredients used to make Guinness followed by a step-by-step description of how Guinness is made. After this a pint of Guinness is offered inclusive of the tour price, which you may pour yourself at one of the bars after a short demonstration by one of the staff. This entitles the 'initiate' to a certificate. There are videos showing, among other production stages, how Guinness is regularly tested by a panel of tasters and the visitor is shown how to properly taste Guinness. The rest of the tour includes many things such as the coopering trade within Guinness many years ago, a section dedicated to the advertising and merchandising efforts of Guinness over the years, and a section dedicated to historical artifacts and footage relating to Guinness. The tour finishes with a free pint of Guinness (if it has not already been availed of at one of the other bars) at the top of the 7 story high building in the Gravity Bar, the highest bar in Dublin. There the pint may be enjoyed with a 360-degree view of the city. Two other bars and a restaurant are available to visitors during the tour and a full selection of Guinness merchandise is available to purchase.

See also[link]

• Guinness family
• Guinness share-trading fraud
• Guinness World Records
• Arthur's Day

References[link]

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (May 2012)

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Guinness

• Official website
• Selection of Guinness commercials including Noitulove, Dancing Man, Surfer

v t e Diageo Beer brands Guinness Guinness Black Harp Kilkenny Red Stripe Satzenbrau Senator Keg Smithwick's Tusker Windhoek Spirits brands Gin Booth's Gilbey's Gordon's Tanqueray Liqueur Baileys Irish Cream Romana Sambuca Sheridan's Rum Bundaberg Rum Cacique Captain Morgan Myers's Rum Pampero Ron Zacapa Centenario Vodka Cîroc Ketel One Popov Silent Sam Smirnoff Whisky Bourbon: Bulleit Bourbon Canadian whisky: Crown Royal Seagram's Seven Crown Yukon Jack Irish whiskey: Bushmills Scotch whisky: Bell's Black & White Blair Athol Buchanan's Caol Ila Cardhu Classic Malts of Scotland Cragganmore Dalwhinnie Single Malt Dimple Glen Elgin Glenkinchie Glen Ord Johnnie Walker Justerini & Brooks (J&B) Knockando Lagavulin Single Malt Oban Old Parr Royal Lochnagar Singleton Talisker Vat 69 White Horse Windsor Premier Tennessee whiskey: George Dickel Other Archers Don Julio Goldschläger Hennessy1 Jose Cuervo Pimm's Raw Tea Rumple Minze Sirop de Picon Wine brands Beaulieu Vineyard Blossom Hill Chalone Dom Pérignon1 Justerini & Brooks Moët & Chandon1 Piat d'Or Rosenblum Cellars Sterling Vineyards Veuve Clicquot1 Breweries and distilleries Blair Athol Distillery Caol Ila Distillery Cardhu Distillery Cragganmore Distillery Dalwhinnie Distillery Desnoes & Geddes East African Breweries Glen Ord Distillery Glenkinchie Distillery Great Northern Brewery Guinness Brewery Guinness Nigeria Haig & Haig Industrias Pampero, C.A. Knockando Distillery Lagavulin Distillery Oban Distillery Old Bushmills Distillery Talisker Distillery People Chairman: Franz Humer Chief executive officer: Paul Walsh Other Diageo/Hotline Poll Diageo Staff Association Gleneagles Hotel Grand Metropolitan Guinness Brewmasters Guinness Storehouse Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles Johnnie Walker Classic United Distillers 1 Produced by Moët Hennessy, a joint venture between Diageo (34%) and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A. (66%) Category

Saint Patrick
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodoxy Anglican Communion Lutheran Church
Major shrine	Glastonbury Abbey; Armagh
Feast	17 March (Saint Patrick's Day)
Patronage	Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Boston, Loíza, Murcia (Spain), engineers, paralegals, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne; invoked against snakes, sins, witchcraft[1]

Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius; Primitive Irish: *Qatrikias;^[2][3] Old Irish: Cothraige or Coithrige;^[4] Middle Irish: Pátraic; Irish: Pádraig; Old Welsh: Patric; Middle Welsh: Padric; Welsh: Padrig; Old English: Patric; ca. 387 – 17 March, 493^[5] or ca. 460^[6]) was a Romano-British and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints.

Two authentic letters from him survive, from which come the only generally-accepted details of his life.^[7] When he was about 16, he was captured from Wales by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the Church, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.

Most available details of his life are from later hagiographies from the seventh century onwards, and these are now not accepted without detailed criticism. Uncritical acceptance of the Annals of Ulster would imply that he lived from 340 to 440, and ministered in what is modern-day Northern Ireland from AD 428 onwards. The dates of Patrick's life cannot be fixed with certainty but, on a widespread interpretation, he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the fifth century.^[8]

Saint Patrick's Day is observed on March 17, the date of his death.^[9] It is celebrated both inside and outside Ireland, as both a liturgical and non-liturgical holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; outside Ireland, it can be a celebration of Ireland itself.

Background[link]

Most modern scholars of Saint Patrick follow a variant of T. F. O'Rahilly's "Two Patricks" theory.^[10] That is to say, many of the traditions later attached to Saint Patrick originally concerned Palladius, who Prosper of Aquitaine's Chronicle says was sent by Pope Celestine I as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431.^[11] Palladius was not the only early cleric in Ireland at this time. The Irish-born Saint Ciaran Saighir the Elder lived in the later fourth century (352–402 AD) and was the first bishop of Ossory. Ciaran the Elder along with Saints Auxilius, Secundinus and Iserninus are also associated with early churches in Munster and Leinster. By this reading, Palladius was active in Ireland until the 460s.^[12]

Prosper associates Palladius' appointment with the visits of Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to suppress the Pelagian heresy and it has been suggested that Palladius and his colleagues were sent to Ireland to ensure that exiled Pelagians did not establish themselves among the Irish Christians. The appointment of Palladius and his fellow-bishops was not obviously a mission to convert the Irish, but more probably intended to minister to existing Christian communities in Ireland.^[13] The sites of churches associated with Palladius and his colleagues are close to royal centres of the period: Secundus is remembered by Dunshaughlin, County Meath, close to the Hill of Tara which is associated with the High King of Ireland; Killashee, County Kildare, close to Naas with links with the Kings of Leinster, is probably named for Auxilius. This activity was limited to the southern half of Ireland, and there is no evidence for them in Ulster or Connacht.^[14]

Although the evidence for contacts with Gaul is clear, the borrowings from Latin into the Old Irish language show that links with former Britain were many.^[15] Saint Iserninus, who appears to be of the generation of Palladius, is thought to have been a Briton, and is associated with the lands of the Uí Cheinnselaig in Leinster. The Palladian mission should not be contrasted with later "British" missions, but forms a part of them.^[16]

In his own words[link]

Slemish, County Antrim, where Saint Patrick is said to have worked as a shepherd while a slave.

Two Latin letters survive which are generally accepted to have been written by St. Patrick. These are the Declaration (Latin: Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus (Latin: Epistola).^[17] The Declaration is the more important of the two. In it Patrick gives a short account of his life and his mission.

St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain at Banna Venta Berniae, a location otherwise unknown,^[18][19][20] though identified in one tradition as Glannoventa, modern Ravenglass in Cumbria.^[21] Calpornius, his father, was a deacon, his grandfather Potitus, a priest. When he was about sixteen, he was captured and carried off as a slave to Ireland.^[22] Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a captive for six years. He writes that his faith grew in captivity, and that he prayed daily.^[23] After six years he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away he says,^[24] where he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family, now in his early twenties.^[25]

Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home:

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us." ^[26]

A. B. E. Hood suggests that the Victoricus of St. Patrick's vision may be identified with Saint Victricius, bishop of Rouen in the late fourth century, who was the only European churchman of the time to advocate or practice conversion of pagans, and who visited Britain in an official capacity in 396.^[27]

Much of the Declaration concerns charges made against St. Patrick by his fellow Christians at a trial. What these charges were, he does not say explicitly, but he writes that he returned the gifts which wealthy women gave him, did not accept payment for baptisms, nor for ordaining priests, and indeed paid for many gifts to kings and judges, and paid for the sons of chiefs to accompany him. It is concluded, therefore, that he was accused of some sort of financial impropriety, and perhaps of having obtained his bishopric in Ireland with personal gain in mind.^[28]

From this same evidence, something can be seen of St. Patrick's mission. He writes that he "baptised thousands of people".^[29] He ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the sons of kings, converting them too.^[30]

St. Patrick's position as a foreigner in Ireland was not an easy one. His refusal to accept gifts from kings placed him outside the normal ties of kinship, fosterage and affinity. Legally he was without protection, and he says that he was on one occasion beaten, robbed of all he had, and put in chains, perhaps awaiting execution.^[31]

Murchiú's life of Saint Patrick contains a supposed prophecy by the druids which gives an impression of how Patrick and other Christian missionaries were seen by those hostile to them:

Across the sea will come Adze-head,^[32] crazed in the head,
his cloak with hole for the head, his stick bent in the head.
He will chant impieties from a table in the front of his house;
all his people will answer: "so be it, so be it."^[33]

The second piece of evidence that comes from Patrick's life is the Letter to Coroticus or Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, written after a first remonstrance was received with ridicule and insult. In this, St. Patrick writes^[34] an open letter announcing that he has excommunicated Coroticus because he had taken some of St. Patrick's converts into slavery while raiding in Ireland. The letter describes the followers of Coroticus as "fellow citizens of the devils" and "associates of the Scots [of Dalriada and later Argyll] and Apostate Picts".^[35] Based largely on an eighth century gloss, Coroticus is taken to be King Ceretic of Alt Clut.^[36] It has been suggested that it was the sending of this letter which provoked the trial which Patrick mentions in the Confession.^[37]

Death[link]

According to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals, Patrick died in AD 461 on March 17, a date accepted by some modern historians.^[38] Prior to the 1940s it was believed without doubt that he died in 420 and thus had lived in the first half of the fifth century.^[39] A lecture entitled "The Two Patricks", published in 1942 by T. F. O'Rahilly, caused enormous controversy by proposing that there had been two "Patricks", Palladius and Patrick, and that what we now know of St. Patrick was in fact in part a conscious effort to blend the two into one hagiographic personality. Decades of contention eventually ended with most historians^[who?] now asserting that Patrick was indeed most likely to have been active in the latter half of the fifth century.^[40]

While Patrick's own writings contain no dates, they do contain information which can be used to date them. Patrick's quotations from the Acts of the Apostles follow the Vulgate, strongly suggesting that his ecclesiastical conversion did not take place before the early fifth century. Patrick also refers to the Franks as being pagans. Their conversion is dated to the period 496–508.^[41]

There is plentiful evidence for a medieval tradition that Patrick had died in 493. An addition to the Annals of Ulster states that in the year 553 (approximately two hundred and fifty years before the addition was made):

I have found this in the Book of Cuanu: The relics of Patrick were placed sixty years after his death in a shrine by Colum Cille. Three splendid halidoms were found in the burial-place: his goblet, the Angel's Gospel, and the Bell of the Testament. This is how the angel distributed the halidoms: the goblet to Dún, the Bell of the Testament to Ard Macha, and the Angel's Gospel to Colum Cille himself. The reason it is called the Angel's Gospel is that Colum Cille received it from the hand of the angel.^[42]

The reputed burial place of St. Patrick in Downpatrick

The placing of this event in the year 553 indicate a tradition that Patrick's death was 493, or at least in the early years of that decade, and the Annals of Ulster report under 493:

Patrick, arch-apostle, or archbishop and apostle of the Irish, rested on the 16th of the Kalends of April in the 120th year of his age, in the 60th year after he had come to Ireland to baptise the Irish.

This tradition is also seen in an annalistic reference to the death of a saint termed Patrick's disciple, Mochta, who is said to have died in 535.^[43]

St. Patrick is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba, although this has never been proven. The Battle for the Body of St. Patrick demonstrates the importance of both him as a spiritual leader, and of his body as an object of veneration, in early Christian Ireland. Saint Patrick Visitor Centre is a modern exhibition complex located in Downpatrick and is a permanent interpretative exhibition centre featuring interactive displays on the life and story of Saint Patrick. It provides the only permanent exhibition centre in the world devoted to Saint Patrick.^[44]

Seventh-century writings[link]

An early document which is silent concerning Patrick is the letter of Columbanus to Pope Boniface IV of about 613. Columbanus writes that Ireland's Christianity "was first handed to us by you, the successors of the holy apostles", apparently referring to Palladius only, and ignoring Patrick.^[45] Writing on the Easter controversy in 632 or 633, Cummian—it is uncertain whether this is the Cummian associated with Clonfert or Cumméne of Iona—does refer to Patrick, calling him our papa, that is pope or primate.^[46]

Two works by late seventh-century hagiographers of Patrick have survived. These are the writings of Tírechán, and Vita sancti Patricii of Muirchu moccu Machtheni.^[47] Both writers relied upon an earlier work, now lost, the Book of Ultán.^[48] This Ultán, probably the same person as Ultan of Ardbraccan, was Tírechán's foster-father. His obituary is given in the Annals of Ulster under the year 657.^[49] These works thus date from a century and a half after Patrick's death.

Tírechán writes

"I found four names for Patrick written in the book of Ultán, bishop of the tribe of Conchobar: holy Magonus (that is, "famous"); Succetus (that is, the god of war); Patricius (that is, father of the citizens); Cothirtiacus (because he served four houses of druids)."^[50]

Muirchu records much the same information, adding that "[h]is mother was named Concessa."^[51] The name Cothirtiacus, however, is simply the Latinized form of Old Irish Cothraige, which is the Q-Celtic form of Latin Patricius.^[52]

The Patrick portrayed by Tírechán and Muirchu is a martial figure, who contests with druids, overthrows pagan idols, and curses kings and kingdoms.^[53] On occasion, their accounts contradict Patrick's own writings: Tírechán states that Patrick accepted gifts from female converts although Patrick himself flatly denies this. However, the emphasis Tírechán and Muirchu placed on female converts, and in particular royal and noble women who became nuns, is thought to be a genuine insight into Patrick's work of conversion. Patrick also worked with the unfree and the poor, encouraging them to vows of monastic chastity. Tírechán's account suggests that many early Patrician churches were combined with nunneries founded by Patrick's noble female converts.^[54]

The martial Patrick found in Tírechán and Muirchu, and in later accounts, echoes similar figures found during the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. It may be doubted whether such accounts are an accurate representation of Patrick's time, although such violent events may well have occurred as Christians gained in strength and numbers.^[55]

Much of the detail supplied by Tírechán and Muirchu, in particular the churches established by Patrick, and the monasteries founded by his converts, may relate to the situation in the seventh century, when the churches which claimed ties to Patrick, and in particular Armagh, were expanding their influence throughout Ireland in competition with the church of Kildare. In the same period, Wilfred, Archbishop of York, claimed to speak, as metropolitan archbishop, "for all the northern part of Britain and of Ireland" at a council held in Rome in the time of Pope Agatho, thus claiming jurisdiction over the Irish church.^[56]

Other presumed early materials include the Irish annals, which contain records from the Chronicle of Ireland. These sources have conflated Palladius and Patrick.^[57] Another early document is the so-called First Synod of Saint Patrick. This is a seventh-century document, once, but no longer, taken as to contain a 5th century original text. It apparently collects the results of several early synods, and represents an era when pagans were still a major force in Ireland. The introduction attributes it to Patrick, Auxilius, and Iserninus, a claim which "cannot be taken at face value."^[58]

In legend[link]

St. Patrick banishes all snakes from Ireland[link]

Pious legend credits St. Patrick with banishing snakes from the island,^[59] chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill.^[60] This hagiographic theme draws on the mythography of the staff of Moses, messenger of Yahweh to gentile Egyptians. In Exodus 7:8–7:13 , Moses and Aaron use their staffs in their struggle with Pharaoh's sorcerers, the staffs of each side morphing into snakes. Aaron's snake-staff prevails.^[61]

However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes, as on insular "Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica...So far, no serpent has successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new terrestrial home" such as from Scotland at one point only eight miles from Ireland, where a few native species have lived, "the venomous adder, the grass snake, and the smooth snake", as National Geographic notes,^[62] and although sea snake species separately exist.^[60][63] "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish", says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.^[60] The List of reptiles of Ireland has only one land reptile species native to Ireland; the viviparous or common lizard.

The only biological candidate species for appearing like a native snake in Ireland is the slow worm, actually a legless lizard, a non-native species more recently found in The Burren region of County Clare as recorded since the early 1970s, as noted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of Ireland, which suspects it was deliberately introduced in the 1960s. So far, the slow worm's territory in the wild has not spread beyond the Burren's limestone region which is rich in wildlife.^[62]

One suggestion, by fiction author Betty Rhodes, is that "snakes" referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids^[64] during that time and place, as evinced on coins minted in Gaul. Chris Weigant connects "big tattoos of snakes" on Druids' arms as "Irish schoolchildren are taught" with the way in which, in the legend of St. Patrick banishing snakes; the "story goes to the core of Patrick's sainthood and his core mission in Ireland."^[65]

St. Patrick uses shamrock in an illustrative parable[link]

The Shamrock

Legend (dating to 1726, according to the OED) also credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God.^[66] For this reason, shamrocks are a central symbol for St Patrick’s Day.

The shamrock had been seen as sacred in the pre-Christian days in Ireland. Due to its green color and overall shape, many viewed it as representing rebirth and eternal life. Three was a sacred number in the pagan religion and there were a number of "Triple Goddesses" in ancient Ireland, including Brigid, Ériu, and the Morrigan.

St. Patrick's dead ash wood walking stick grows into a living tree[link]

Some Irish legends involve the Oilliphéist, the Caoránach, and the Copóg Phádraig. During his evangelising journey back to Ireland from his parent's home at Birdoswald, he is understood to have carried with him an ash wood walking stick or staff. He thrust this stick into the ground wherever he was evangelising and at the place now known as Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so long to get through to the people there that the stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on.

St. Patrick speaks with ancient Irish ancestors who were born long before his time[link]

The 12th century work Acallam na Senórach tells of Patrick being met by two ancient warriors, Caílte mac Rónáin and Oisín, during his evangelical travels. The two were once members of Fionn mac Cumhaill's warrior band the Fianna, and somehow survived to Patrick's time.

Saint Patrick's Bell[link]

The Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell

The National Museum of Ireland in Dublin possesses a bell first mentioned, according to the Annals of Ulster, in the Book of Cuanu in the year 552. The bell was part of a collection of "relics of Patrick" removed from his tomb sixty years after his death by Colum Cille to be used as relics. The bell is described as "The Bell of the Testament", one of three relics of "precious minna" (extremely valuable items), of which the other two are described as Patrick's goblet and "The Angels Gospel". Cille is described to have been under the direction of an "Angel" for whom he sent the goblet to Down, the bell to Armagh, and kept possession of the Angel's Gospel for himself. The name Angels Gospel is given to the book because it was supposed that Cille received it from the angel's hand. A stir was caused in 1044 when two kings, in some dispute over the bell, went on spates of prisoner taking and cattle theft. The annals make one more apparent reference to the bell when chronicling a death, of 1356, "Solomon Ua Mellain, The Keeper of The Bell of the Testament, protector, rested in Christ."

The bell was encased in a "bell shrine", a distinctive Irish type of reliquary made for it, as an inscription records, by King Domnall Ua Lochlainn sometime between 1091 and 1105. The shrine is an important example of the final, Viking-influenced, style of Irish Celtic art, with intricate Urnes style decoration in gold and silver. The Gaelic inscription on the shrine also records the name of the maker "U INMAINEN" (which translates to "Noonan"), "who with his sons enriched/decorated it"; metalwork was often inscribed for remembrance.

The bell itself is simple in design, hammered into shape with a small handle fixed to the top with rivets. Originally forged from iron, it has since been coated in bronze. The shrine is inscribed with three names, including King Domnall Ua Lochlainn's. The rear of the shrine, not intended to be seen, is decorated with crosses while the handle is decorated with, among other work, Celtic designs of birds. The bell is accredited with working a miracle in 1044 and having been coated in bronze to shield it from human eyes, for which it would be too holy. It measures 12.5 × 10 cm at the base, 12.8 × 4 cm at the shoulder, 16.5 cm from base to shoulder, 3.3 cm from shoulder to top of handle and weighs 1.7 kg.^[67]

Sainthood and modern remembrance[link]

The neo-gothic St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, as seen from Rockefeller Center.

March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick's Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast day.^[68] The day became a feast day in the universal church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary^[69] in the early part of the 17th century.

For most of Christianity's first thousand years, canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after the death of people considered to be very holy people, the local Church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, St. Patrick has never been formally canonised by a Pope; nevertheless, various Christian churches declare that he is a Saint in Heaven (he is in the List of Saints). He is still widely venerated in Ireland and elsewhere today.^[70]

St. Patrick is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on March 17. St. Patrick is also venerated in the Orthodox Church, especially among English-speaking Orthodox Christians living in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and in North America.^[71] There are Orthodox icons dedicated to him.^[72]

Places associated with Saint Patrick[link]

Slemish, County Antrim

St Patrick's statue at Saul, County Down

St Patrick's Oratory at the top of Croaghpatrick, County Mayo

• Slemish, County Antrim and Killala Bay, County Mayo

When captured by raiders, there are two theories as to where Patrick was enslaved. One theory is that he herded sheep in the countryside around Slemish. Another theory is that Patrick herded sheep near Killala Bay, at a place called Fochill.

• Saul, County Down (from Irish: Sabhall Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's barn")^[73]

It is claimed that Patrick founded his first church in a barn at Saul, which was donated to him by a local chieftain called Dichu. It is also claimed that Patrick died at Saul or was brought there between his death and burial. Nearby, on the crest of Slieve Patrick, is a huge statue of Saint Patrick with bronze panels showing scenes from his life.

• Hill of Slane, County Meath

Muirchu moccu Machtheni, in his highly mythologized 7th century Life of Patrick, says that Patrick lit a Paschal fire on this hilltop in 433 CE in defiance of High King Laoire. The story says that the fire could not be doused by anyone but Patrick, and it was here that he explained the holy trinity using the shamrock.

• Croagh Patrick, County Mayo (from Irish: Cruach Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's stack")^[74]

It is claimed that Patrick climbed this mountain and fasted on its summit for the forty days of Lent. Croagh Patrick draws thousands of pilgrims who make the trek to the top on the last Sunday in July.

• Lough Derg, County Donegal (from Irish: Loch Dearg, meaning "red lake")^[75]

It is claimed that Patrick killed a large serpent on this lake and that its blood turned the water red (hence the name). Each August, pilgrims spend three days fasting and praying there on Station Island.

• Armagh, County Armagh

It is claimed that Patrick founded a church here and proclaimed it to be the most holy church in Ireland. Armagh is today the primary seat of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Ireland and both cathedrals in the town are named after Patrick.

• Downpatrick, County Down (from Irish: Dún Pádraig, meaning "Patrick's stronghold")^[76]

It is claimed that Patrick was brought here after his death and buried in the grounds of Down Cathedral.

Other places named after Saint Patrick include:

• Ardpatrick, County Limerick (from Irish: Ard Pádraig, meaning "high place of Patrick")^[77]
• Patrickswell or Toberpatrick, County Limerick (from Irish: Tobar Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's well")^[78]
• St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham
• St Patrick's Island, County Dublin
• St Patrick's Isle, off the Isle of Man
• Llanbadrig (church), Ynys Badrig (island), Porth Padrig (cove), Llyn Padrig (lake), and Rhosbadrig (heath) on the island of Anglesey in Wales
• Templepatrick, County Antrim (from Irish: Teampall Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's church")^[79]

In literature[link]

• Robert Southey wrote a ballad called Saint Patrick's Purgatory, based on popular legends surrounding the saint's name.

• Stephen R. Lawhead wrote the fictional Patrick: Son of Ireland based on the life of the celebrated Saint.^[80]

• Parke Godwin wrote the fiction novel The Last Rainbow based on the life of Saint Patrick and incorporating elements of fantasy established in his earlier novel Firelord.

• Dutch/Scottish singer Chris Anderson wrote a poem called "Saint Patrick's Lament", based on the Saint's remembrance festival Saint Patrick's Day.

• In Lloyd Alexander's novel Time Cat, the main characters encounter an enslaved Irish shepherd implied to be the future St. Patrick.

See also[link]

• Croagh Patrick
• St. Patrick's blue
• St. Patrick's Flag
• St. Patrick's Purgatory
• Ireland
• Druid

References[link]

Further reading[link]

*Byrne, Francis J. (1973), Irish Kings and High-Kings., London: Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-5882-8