Enjoy Cork Stouts This Weekend

20th Oct 2010

As we write kegs of Guinness are being loaded on to trucks in above in The Pale by Dubliners who have done so for many years. They will make their way down the motorway to Cork for the jazz festival - the Dublin brew's annual attempt at offloading their product on Corkonians.

In Cork we drink these

Unsurprisingly, the Guinness brand has been heavily damaged by the recent concoction of Arthur's Day and the scandalous drunken internet videos (link not work safe) that it produced.

If you haven't seen it a number of inebriated naked men gyrate furiously surrounded by hundreds of revellers in Temple Bar - Ireland's true den of drunken iniquity.

The men then play with each others private parts in full view of crowds of onlookers. Classy.

Despite the cosy feel-good TV adverts for Arthur's Day the reality on the ground has been nothing short of horrific. Another disturbing clip from Arthur's Day shows a topless man with a gaping wound on his back which appears to be self-inflicted.

A friend of this scribe who educates young Corkonians was horrified when a student asked if the class could have "homework off because of Saint Arthur's Day".

Coming so soon after the leader of the Republic of Ireland Brian Cowen was interviewed "half way between drunk and hung over" on Dublin based radio station RTE and then ridiculed internationally, Arthur's Day brought the drunken Irish stereotype to a new low.

PROC users have been expressing their disgust on our forum for a number of weeks pointing out the cynical way that Guinness have cashed in on the drunken Irish stereotype for profit.

And they wonder why people like Roy Keane claim "Cork first, Ireland second" in order to distance themselves from this intimidating cheesy Paddywackery.

This wouldn't happen in Cork. It just wouldn't. We drink responsibly.
 

Guinness's Arthur's Day "celebrations" in Temple Bar Dublin

While the monstrously powerful marketing clout of 'Brand Guinness' helps to paint a picture of the island as a nation of drunks, one wonders why people outside Cork are happy to pay for it by drinking the Dublin stout.

Self-hatred perhaps? We've been down this road already in 2010 and we can't keep providing juicy content for the Evening Herald so we'll leave it to them to decide.

In Cork we don't have the dilemma of paying hard earned money for a Dublin product that results in embarrassments such as that now infamous Youtube clip. Thankfully, we've got our own stouts, brewed locally by Corkonians in a process that shouts 'Cork' from start to finish.

From the pure water that enters the brewery to the hand that pulls back the tap. And it's all so close to home that they could nearly roll the kegs down the road.

In days gone by you'd rarely get a Beamish or a Murphy's in a pub with Guinness Jazz Festival branding.

Now, in all but two or three big venues it seems that it only happens while the big acts are playing on stage: you can now buy local stout at the start and end of gigs. The job.

It doesn't take a Cork person to figure out that you just need to buy more than one local stout at the start of a gig to last you the whole way. The best thing of all is that when you hand the (smaller) fee over the counter in exchange for your pint of local pleasure, you can rest easy that you have supported Cork jobs…..as well as continuing the proud tradition of Cork culture and independence.

Jazz Abú! Corcaigh Abú!