HIS LIFE STORY

Arthur Guinness was born in 1725, nearCelbridge in County Kildare, thoughthere is some speculation about the exact

date and place ofhis birth. Whatwe can say withconfidence is thatin 1752, aged 27,his godfather theArchbishop ofCashel, ArthurPrice, left Arthurand his fatherRichard £100 each

in his will. Arthur used the money to set up abrewery in Leixlip, as shown on the map. Thelease for this brewery dates from 13thSeptember, 1756 and a copy of the original leaseis displayed in the nearby Courtyard Hotel.

In 1759, Arthur left the brewery to his brotherRichard, and acquired the lease to the nowfamous site at St. James’s Gate in Dublin. TheArchbishop Dr. Arthur Price is interred in St.Mary’s Church beside Arthur’s Square.

THE COMPANY, THE BRANDThe Guinness brand is not just an Irish successstory. It is one of the world’s most recognisedbrands. Like many companies, it had smallbeginnings, though it is fair to say with ArthurGuinness at the helm, the brewing company hadcanny leadership from the start.

At the age of 34, he signed a 9,000 year lease ona disused brewery site at St. James’s Gate inDublin. The annual rent was £45. A decade later,the company’s first export was amodest six anda half barrels, bound for England.

By the time Arthur passed away, aged 78, hisson, Arthur Guinness II was able to take over therunning of the business, and the dynasty began.It was, by 1833, the largest brewery in Ireland,and in 1886, it was a public company quoted onthe London Stock Exchange, and had an annualoutput of 1.2million barrels. By 1929, 2millionpints of Guinness were sold a day, and in thesame year, the company launched the hugelysuccessful and landmark advertising campaignwith the “Guinness is good for you” slogan, andthe cartoon series featuring the famous line:“My Goodness, my Guinness.”

By 2012, 10 million glasses of Guinness areenjoyed in over 150 countries around the globe.And it all started in a small brewery in Leixlip!

LEIXLIP CASTLE ANDTHEMAIN STREET

To this day, there are still strongconnections between the town of Leixlipand the Guinness family. When Arthur

first set up the brewery at Castleview in 1756, itbegan a relationship with Leixlip that hasexisted for over 250 years. Arthur wasresponsible for developing the brewery site bythe river, and also the terrace of houses aroundwhat is known as Ralph Square.

In the following year, he also bought the leaseof the site where today we find the Mall alongthe Main Street. He designed it to be tree-linedand set back from the road, similar to thenorthern part of what is Dublin’s O’ConnellStreet, but was known then as theMall.

Arthur’s younger brother Richard lived atCastleview until the early 1800s, and at somepoint he owned the lease of the nearby SalmonLeap Inn. He was also a trustee of the turnpikeroad which ran from Lucan to Kinnegad, andwas involved in the realignment of the road toavoid the steep section at the Old Hill. He was acompatriot of CaptainWilliam Brady who builtwhat is today the Leixlip House Hotel. The roadwas named Captain’s Hill after him.

Various parts of the brewery site and the Mallremained in the family until the 1970s. Prior tothat, in 1958, the Hon. Desmond Guinnessbought Leixlip Castle, perhaps Ireland’s oldestcontinuously inhabited house. Coincidentally,Desmond was 27 when he acquired the castle;

the same age Arthur was when he set up thebrewery in Leixlip. The castle was built in 1172by Adam de Hereford on a rocky outcropoverlooking the confluence of the Rye River andthe River Liffey, following the Norman Invasionof Ireland in 1169. It has been modified andextended over the centuries. Needless to say, thebrewery would have had an excellent view of thecastle, hence its name, Castleview!

Desmond and his firstwife, Mariga (the formerPrincessMarie Gabrielle ofUrach), founded the IrishGeorgian Society in April1958 to help preserve Irisharchitecture. One of theearly preservation cam-paigns was at the nearby

Obelisk (Connolly’s Folly) and in 1967-79, theGuinnesses bought and started to preserveCastletownHouse, in Celbridge, Kildare, said tobe the finest Palladian house in Ireland. It wassaved from demolition and is now in the handsof the state (run by the Office of Public Works).

The magnificent Palladian-style Castletown House and grounds innearby Celbridge, Co. Kildare is now open to the public.

LEIXLIP & GUINNESS: THE BREWING LEGEND BEGINS!

Arthur Guinness; 1725 - 1803

10thC5thC 1700 1900 20002,000BC8,000BC16,000BC

Ireland covered in ice sheets

c. 8,000 BC:First Mesolithic

hunters

c. 2,000 BC:Bronze Agetechnology arrives

c. 500 BC:Iron Age andCeltic in!uence

c. 6th Century:Golden Age ofIrish monasteries

795 AD:First Viking raids

917 AD:Battle of Confey

1014 AD:Battle of Clontarf;

Brian Ború killed

1169 AD:Strongbow lands in

Wexford. NormanConquest begins

1315 AD:Edward the Bruce

campaign to rally supportagainst Anglo-Normans

1494 AD:Poyning’s Law

curbs power ofIrish Parliament

1594 AD:Nine Years’War

in Ulster againstElizabeth I

1172 AD:Leixlip Castle;constructionbegins

1317 AD:St. Mary’sChurchdestroyed

1607 AD:Flight ofthe Earls

1725:ArthurGuinnessis born

1740:Harsh winter andfamine; Connolly’sFolly built

1776:AmericanDeclarationof Independence

1789:French Revolution.

Washington electedPresident in America

1798:Irish

Rebelliondefeated

1800:Act of Union

1803 AD:Robert Emmettrising defeated

1817:Severefamine

1828:Daniel O'Connellcampaigns forCatholic Emancipation

1879 AD:Land League

campaignsfor fair rent

1972:BloodySunday

1922:Irish Civil War

1973:Ireland joinsthe EuropeanCommunity

1999:Ireland adoptsthe Euro currency

1914-18:World War I

1939-45:World War II

1845-49:Great Irish Famine

1861-65:American Civil War

1917-18:Russian Revolution

1756:Arthur and RichardGuinness establishbrewery in Leixlip

1803:ArthurGuinnessdies

1862:Guinness

‘harp’ logotrademarked

1929:2 million pints ofGuinness sold a day

1950:5 million pints ofGuinness sold a day

1769:First shipment

of Guinness to UK

1690 AD:Battle ofthe Boyne

1577 AD:The Great

Comet

432 AD:Saint Patrick

returns to Ireland

c. 3,500 BC:Neolithic monumentbuilt at Newgrange

1828-1918:Fenian WilliamFrancis Roantreeis born in Leixlip

1945:Leixlip dam completed

1884:GAA founded

1989:Intel arrivesin Leixlip

1886:Guinness joins London Stock Exchange;becomes world’s largest brewery;annual production is 1.2 million barrels

1998:The Good Friday

Agreement is signed

18001743 AD:

WonderfulBarn is built

1709 AD:Great Frost;coldest winterin 500 years

1649 AD:CromwellinvadesIreland

1722 AD:CastletownHouse underconstruction

A BRIEF HISTORY TIMELINE OF IRELAND... AND A WEE DROP OF GUINNESS!

N.B.: The timeline is compressed in three phases and is therefore not to scale.

Guinness is good for ‘flu...1893: Author Robert Louis Stevenson brought supplies of Guinnessto Western Samoa. He drank it to aid his recovery from the ‘flu!

Guinness; extra, extra cold!1909: Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson left some Guinnessbehind at his base camp, to be discovered 18 years later!

The harp is born...1862: the Guinness trademark oval, buff-coloured labelwith harp and signature is introduced for the first time.

The inscription reads: “Here are deposited the remains ofDoctor Arthur Price. Lord Arch Bishop of Cashell who diedthe 17th July 1752. Aged 74.”

Below: The weir on the River Liffey, now dismantled.St. Mary’s Church is visible in the background.(Originally published between ca. 1865-1914. © National Library of Ireland)

Original Brewery Site

The original brewery site atCastleview is marked in red.

The River Liffey was traversed bya weir. The mill race shown to thebottom left of the map extendeddown to a mill (shown below,

pictured circa 1900). Some of themill buildings still exist today atthe end of Mill Lane, though themill race has largely vanished.

Leixlip Town Council would like to thank Patrick Guinness, the GuinnessArchive and Diageo Ireland for their generous assistance in theproduction of this poster.

The black and white photographs of Leixlip are byRobert French, 1841-1917, from the Lawrence Collection.© National Library of Ireland.

THIS INFORMATION BOARD IS PART OF THE ‘ARTHUR’S WAY’ TRAIL.

VISITORS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VISIT OTHER SECTIONS OF THE ROUTE,

INCLUDING CELBRIDGE, THE BIRTHPLACE OF ARTHUR GUINNESS, AND

OUGHTERARD CEMETERY, IN CO. KILDARE, WHERE HE IS BURIED.

Leixlip Town CouncilNewtown House41 Captain's HillLeixlip, Co. Kildare.Tel: 01-6245777Fax: 01-6246666E-mail:townclerk@leixliptowncouncil.ie

Comhairle Baile Léim an BhradáinTeach an Nuabhaile41 Cnoc an ChaptaeinLéim an Bhradáin, Co. Chill Dara.Guthán: 01-6245777Faics: 01-6246666Ríomhphost:townclerk@leixliptowncouncil.ie

“The Castle of Leixlip, at that period, possessed a character of romanticbeauty and feudal grandeur, such as few buildings in Ireland can claim.”‘Leixlip Castle’ by Charles MaturinTaken from The Literary Souvenir,or Cabinet of Poetry and Romance, 1825

The Guinness storyTHEGUINNESS SUCCESS STORY IS WELL KNOW TO ALL LEIXLIP LOCALS,

BUT BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE TOWN, WITH THE EXCEPTION OFA FEW HISTORIANS, FEW PEOPLE REALISE THAT WHERE YOU ARE

STANDING NOW IS ONLY A HUNDRED YARDS AWAY FROM WHERE THEBREWING LEGEND BEGAN.

ARTHURGUINNESSWASBORNNEARCELBRIDGE INCOUNTYKILDARE. IN 1752,HE WAS LEFT £100 IN A WILL. HE USED THE MONEY TO SET UP A BREWERY INLEIXLIP WITH HIS BROTHER, RICHARD. IT TOOK SEVERAL YEARS FOR THEBREWERY TO ESTABLISH ITSELF, BUT IT GAVE ARTHUR THE CONFIDENCE TOMOVE HIS OPERATION EASTWARDS INTO THE CAPITAL CITY OF DUBLIN.THE REST, AS THEY SAY, IS MOST DEFINITELY HISTORY!

Above: Part of the 1759 lease, showing thefamous Guinness signature that is

synonymous with the brand worldwide.

Left: The 1862 oval label that bears the harpsymbol and the Guinness signature.

1755 Brewery

1756 Houses to let

1775 Houses to let

Arthur Guinness Guinness & Leixlip

Above: Interior view of cooperage at St.James’s Gate Brewery, where coopers

are at work, c.1900.

Left: The iconic Toucan from the artist JohnGilroy, created in the1930s. His work wasused up to the 1960s.

Left: Barges beingloaded at Victoria Quay,c. 1955. The bargestransported casks toships in Dublin’sdocklands for exportaround the world. d

esign:www.thedrawingb

oard.ie

Ale is out, stout is in...1799: Arthur Guinness takes the important step to stopbrewing ales and from then on only brews ‘porter’, or stout.

Below: Leixlip Castle and Boathouse, viewed roughly from the site ofthe original ‘Castleview’ brewery.(Originally published between 1880-1900. © National Library of Ireland)