Essays and Such
Irish Cultural Society
of San Antonio Texas
Promoting Awareness of Irish Culture
Guinness
by Martin Wallace
Famous Irish Names
Guinness MagAonghusa
In 1894 sixteen different versions were recorded of
the ancient Ulster surname, MagAonghusa. It means'son of
Aonghus! (one choice,). Their ancestry goes back to a
5th - century chief of the Dal Araidhe. By thr 12th
century they had become lords of Iveagh in County Down,
where they had their fortress at Rathfriland.
Although they played along with the Elizabethans, they
were with Hugh O'Neill at the victorious Battle of the
Yellow Ford in 1598.
They survived disastrous defeat at Kinsale and had their
22,000 acres restored. Magennis of Iveagh was created
Viscount. They had distinguished bishops in the family, both
Catholic and Protestant. A Viscount Iveagh sat in the
'Patriot Parliament' in 1689, the last such until 1922.
Shortly after the Battle of the Boyne the Magennis's joined
the exodus to serve in the armies of Austria, France, Spain
and later America.
The Guinness name has been stamped on the Irish
consciousness since 1759, when Arthur Guinness set up his
enormously successful brewery by the River Liffey in Dublin.
The Guinness family endeared themselves by their generous
contributions in charitable institutions. The company,
affectionately known as 'Unncle Arthur,' was one of the corner
stones of the Irish economy
Arthur Guinness: Brewer
Guinness was bom in Celbridge, Co. Kildare, in 1725. When
his father's employer, the Archbishop of Cashel died, he
left 100 pounds (cash) to Guinness, who had been land steward
to the archbishop. Guinness's brother, also employed on the
archbishop's estate, where beer was brewed for the workers,
received the same amount of money. Three years later, the
senior Guinness left this breway in charge of his brother and
took over one at St. James's Gate in Dublin.
He began by brewing beer or ale and within eight
years was master of the Dublin Corporation of Brewers. In
1761 he married Olivia Whitmore, a relative of Henry Grattan,
and ten of their twenty-one children lived to establish a
dynasty which has spread into many activities and countries.
The family's long association with St. Patrick's Cathedral
began with a gift of 250 guineas (one old Irish pound & 1
shilling) for the chapel schools, and Dublin enjoyed other
benefactions.
There was, however, one dispute with Dublin Corporation,
whose investigators concluded that Guinness was drawing more
free water than his lease permitted. In 1775, the brewer
seized a pickaxe to defend his supplies from the sherriff,
and eventually reached a solution after protracted litigation.
Duties on beer proved another problem and in 1795 Guinness
enlisted Grattan's oratory powers to persuade the government
to remove the burden. (In Ireland it seems it's who you know
that counts! )
In 1778, Guinness began to brew porter - the dark beer
containing roasted barley and first drunk by London porters
- and exploited Ireland's new canals to extend his market.
In 1799, he brewed ale for the last time. Sales of porter
increased threefold during the Napoleonic Wars, and in time
St James's Gate became the largest porter and stout brewery
in the world, its extra-stout porter becoming know simply
as stout.
Guinness gradually handed over control to his three
sons, and spent his last years at Beaumont, his country home
in Drumcondra, now a Dublin suburb. He died on 23 January,
1803. ("Famous Irish Lives by Martin Wallace) Try a tour of
the Guinness Brewery and taste a sample of real Guinness
beer.