Shoulder to Shoulder, We'll Answer Ireland's Call...

Alrighty, part three of five coming up!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Let me just say this right off the bat -- I love St. Patrick's Day. It ranks right up there in my top three favorite holidays, the others being Christmas and Halloween. So this whole vacation was pretty much amazing!!

Anyway, here goes. Breakfast was at 10:30 and it was pretty much like whoa. Meghan and her friends have a "family" dinner night once a week, and St. Patrick's Day breakfast was an extension of that. They break up all the work and do it kind of like a pot-luck meal. We had green pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit, toast, tea, and punch. And then, in keeping with the spirit of the day, we had a round of drinks before we walked to the pub. I had my first Bulmers hard cider, which is wonderful. It's a bit sweeter than beer and it doesn't have that yeasty aftertaste, so I liked it a lot.

Our walk to town in the early afternoon was what one could call damp if they were the world's best underestimater. It was misting, but it was also windy, so by the time we got to the pub, I was soaked all the way up my thighs and down through two layers of coats. And naturally, I didn't have my umbrella since it's useless to use them in Ireland. The locals certainly don't. It was so bad, I had mascara running down my face, and from then on, I carried my liner and mascara in my pocket when we went out somewhere. Apparently, Ireland makes this incredible mascara that never comes off. Meghan bought some earlier in the semester and she said it was great because it never ran, but that she literally could not get it off her face and she's tried almost everything. Maybe the make super mascara remover in Ireland too. I wasn't there long enough to need to invest in it, but I do think it's pretty amazing stuff because non of the local girls looked like drowned rats.

The pub we went to was called the King's Head Pub and it's on the main drag of Galway. The pub was absolutely packed by the time we got there, and the rugby match didn't start until 1:30. But people were staking out claims to tables with good views of the televisions since early morning. It's really cool, because the pubs in Ireland aren't like the bars we have in the United States. Pubs are more like family gathering places, and people literally bring babies to them. It was also really nice because about a year ago, Ireland banned smoking in public establishments, so there was no smoke inside. I loved it. The pub itself was three stories high, and eventually we got a seat on the third floor, which is called the Ruby Room. That's where we watched the game. But before then, when we were still drying off, we ordered Irish Coffees. They make it with instant coffee, hot water, and Jameson. It's really important to get it down before it gets cold because then it's just nasty. So I was a trooper and finished mine first (don't worry, Poppop, Mom says you think I'm an alcoholic -- cross my heart, I'm not). Then the Ruby Room opened up and we went up to grab our seats. Once we were settled, we ordered more drinks and this time I got Bailey's. They couldn't serve it with ice because they were having a water problem in Galway when I was there. It was really cute and funny because everybody and their brother made it into the biggest news. Everyone you talked to told you about the "contaminated" water and told you not to drink it. The pure fascination with it really reminded me of a small town, and not the fact that Galway is Ireland's fourth largest city.

Then the game started. It was really intense because Ireland National was playing the Italian team, and they would win the Six Nations if they won their game and Wales won their game against England. The Ruby Room was full to the brim with people and everybody cheered when we scored. It was the coolest experience ever. Ireland National has their own song because they don't really play an anthem (they're made up of people from both Northern Ireland and Ireland, and there's been some controvesy about which national athem to play). It goes something like this:

Come the day and come the hour

Come the power and the glory

We have come to answer

Our Country's call

From the four proud provinces of Ireland

Ireland, Ireland,

Together standing tall

Shoulder to shoulder

We'll answer Ireland's call

I really liked it and even though there are two more verses, only the first and the chorus are sung. They also have a really nifty logo that I tried to find while I was in Galway so I could put it in my scrapbook when I get home. I think Meghan is still on the hunt for it. But it looks something like this:


Pretty much, Ireland kicked Italy's butt. I think the final score was something like 52-17. I forget exactly how it is scored, but the idea is similar to that of our football. Leah, Meghan's friend, had played rugby at one point, and explained some of the rules as the game went along.

About at halftime, we got another round of drinks. I didn't want anything because I didn't want to go to the poorhouse, but the bartender made a mistake and gave them an extra drink. That's how I got my second Bulmers of the day. Now I know by this point, my grandpa is probably having a heart attack because he thinks I'm not ready to be drinking. And I know myself that it was a little weird to be starting before noon, or even while it was still light out. But it was St. Patrick's Day in Ireland!!!! And Irish alcohol agrees with me because I didn't even get tipsy -- I'm good at spacing things out. Phil, Lauren's boyfriend, had gotten a pint of Guinness and he let me try a sip before we left after the game. I really didn't like it because it tasted burned.

Information on Bulmers:

Commercial cider production was started in Clonmel in 1935, by local man William Magner. Mr. Magner quickly established a very successful business and, in 1937, he joined forces with the famous English cider-makers H.P. Bulmer and Company, securing the rights to the Bulmers brand name in the Rpublic of Ireland. Dowd's Lane in Clonmel was the location of this burgeoning enterprise. In 1949, Mr. Magner withdrew from the business and the Bulmers name came to the fore.

Today, Bulmers Ltd. is a formidable Irish company by an standards, with a well-deserved reputation for innovative and successful product development and marketing. The company employs more than 500 people and is a substantial part of the economic infrastructure of the community of Clonmel. Bulmers Ltd. has an extensive portfolio of drinks brands which include Bulmers Original Cider, Strongbow Cider, Linden Village Cider, Samsons Cider and Ritz Crisp Dry Perry.

Drinking cider in moderation can have health benefits. The acid/sugar balance of cider, along with being served carbonated and chilled, provides a long alcoholic drink that is very refreshing. Recent research shows cider contains a number of antioxidants, the same amount as wine.

During the 14th century, children were baptized in cider -- it was cleaner than water -- and in the 18th century, part of a farm laborer's wages was paid in cider. By the year 1800, cider was said to be "the" cure for stomach upset, rheumatic disease, and various other diseases. (Information taken from bulmers.ie)

Information on Bailey's: (from wikipedia)

Baileys Irish Cream (the registered trade mark omits the apostrophe), is an Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur, made by R. A. Bailey & Co. of Dublin, Ireland. The trademark is currently owned by Diageo. It has a declared alcohol content of 17% alcohol by volume^[1].

Introduced in 1974, Baileys was the first Irish Cream liqueur on the market but there are now a growing number of other brands available.

Baileys was first maunfactured in 1927 by Swiss dentist Dr Guttimesenhousen as an all purpose tooth whitener, anesthetic and 24hr contraceptive. However due to the rise of conservative Nazisim and economic hard (ooh) times in the 1930's the good doctor's dream was never realised

Baileys was the first liqueur to use cream and alcohol together in a manner sufficiently stable to allow commercial distribution. The cream and whiskey are homogenized to form an emulsion, with the aid of an emulsifier containing refined vegetable oil. This process prevents separation of the whiskey and cream during storage. The quantity of other ingredients used is not known but they include chocolate, vanilla, caramel and sugar.

According to the manufacturer no preservatives are required, the whiskey alone is used to preserve the cream.

Information on Guinness: (from wikipedia)

Guinness is a dry stout that originated in Arthur Guinness's St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. The beer is based upon the porter style that originated in London in the early 1700s. It is one of the most successful beer brands in the world, being exported world wide. The distinctive feature in the flavour is the roasted barley which remains unfermented. For many years a portion of the beer was aged to give a sharp lactic flavour, but Guinness has refused to confirm if this still occurs. The thick creamy head is the result of a nitrogen mix being added during the serving process. It is extremely popular with Irish people and is the best selling alcoholic drink of all time in Ireland, where Guinness & Co. makes almost 2 billion euro annually.

Now available around the world, the brand is still heavily associated with Ireland, though the parent company has been headquartered in London since 1932, and was later developed into a multi-national alcohol conglomerate and re-named Diageo.

Guinness stout is made from water, barley malt, hops, and brewers yeast. A portion of the barley is flaked (i.e. steamed and rolled) and roasted to give Guinness its dark-ruby colour and characteristic taste. It is pasteurised and filtered. Despite its reputation as a "meal in a glass" or "liquid bread", Guinness only contains 198 calories (838 kilojoules) per imperial pint (20oz UK) (1460 kJ/L), fewer than an equal-sized serving of skimmed milk or orange juice and most other non-light beers.

The water used comes from Lady's Well in the Wicklow Mountains. The barley used is Irish-grown.

Draught Guinness and its canned counterpart contain nitrogen (N₂) as well as carbon dioxide. Nitrogen is very much 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 both to enable very small bubbles to be formed and to force 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" tastes quite different; it contains only carbon dioxide, 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 1070. Foreign Extra Stout and Special Export Stout, with ABV over 7%, are perhaps closest to the original in character.

Draught Guinness is served cool with the beer line run through a cooler to chill the liquid to the required temperature. Due to the foaming action of the nitrogen it can take a while for the beer to settle as it is poured, often requiring a pause. Guinness has made a virtue of this wait with advertising campaigns such as "good things come to those who wait" and "it takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint". Some bartenders also draw a simple design, using the head of the tap, such as a shamrock in the head during the slow pour.

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.^[5] 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 center, 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.

Guinness uses the harp of Brian Boru, or Trinity College Harp as their trademark. This circa 14th century harp which is still visible at Trinity College, Dublin, has been used as a symbol of Ireland since the reign of Henry VIII (16th century). Guinness adopted the harp as a logo in 1862, however it is shown in a form that faces left instead of right as in the coat of arms.

Guinness has a long history of marketing campaigns, from award-winning television commercials to beer mats and posters.

Guinness's iconic stature can be attributed in part 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's was responsible for creating posters which included such 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 tests agree/Guinness is good for you./Try some today and see/What one or toucan do.) Dorothy L. Sayers, then a copywriter 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, attracts high prices on the collectible market.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, Guinness's 1999 advert Surfer^[7] was named the best television commercial of all time in a UK poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4. Surfer was produced by the advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO; the advertisement can be downloaded from their website.^[8]

Guinness was awarded the 2001 Clio Award as the Advertiser of the Year, citing the work of five separate ad agencies around the world.^[9]

Recently, commercials for Guinness Draught have been using paper cutout animation (in the style of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python animations) featuring two scientists. One scientist makes some claim about Guinness and the other responds "BRILLIANT!".

In 2005 their commercial won the European Epic Award. In it, 3 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 pandolin, an ichynisaurus 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. There are three spin-off versions of this advert, promoting the Extra Cold draught.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007 a new ad campaign appeared: Hands, which broke on February 12, starts a £2.5m campaign that includes cinema, online, digital and outdoor ads in stadiums, pubs and London Underground stations. The ad has a dedicated website and, in a first for Guinness, visitors to the site will have the opportunity to direct and customise their own Guinness "Hands" film, which they can send on to friends.^[10] The ad features a pair of hands waiting for a pint of Guinness and is in black and white. The final scene reveals a perfectly poured pint of Guinness as the hands re-appear to type the line "Good things come to those who wait".^[11]

Guinness has recently taken the dominant share in the African beer market with its Michael Power advertising campaign.^{[citation needed]}

Despite widespread advertising, sales of Guinness have been falling in Ireland since 1998, with a 3% decline since August 2005.^{[citation needed]} It has, however, become more popular in the US, displaying a 9% sales increase.


Continuing on...

As we left the bar, I got Phil to hid a Guinness glass in his jacket for me. So now I have a bona fide Guinness glass from Ireland sitting on my desk. I'm not exactly sure how to get it back to the States in one piece, but I'll let Mom worry about that since I'm sending it with her. :-)

Our walk back to the apartment wasn't as damp as the walk to town had been. In fact, I don't think it was misting at all. Meghan and I stopped at the convenience shop in her apartment complex to pick up frozen pizzas for dinner. After we stored them in the freezers, I ran upstairs to get a hot shower and warm up before we started St. Patrick's Day Round Two.

I think that's enough for now, because I really do have to write a paper for one of my classes, but as soon as I've either finished it or made real progress, I'll write more about my visit to Ireland and the craic (pronounced crack, translation: fun) I had there.

Love,
Amanda