Wexford village explores link to Guinness Book of Records

RTÉ News​

a day ago

A county Wexford village is undertaking a number of initiatives to highlight its connection to the Guinness Book of World Records as the publication celebrates its 70th year.
Castlebridge, north of Wexford town is the birthplace of the book which has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide and inspired record attempts across the globe.
Locals say most are unaware of the major impact the the small village has had in creating this powerhouse of the publishing industry and inspiring millions worldwide to engage in record attempts.
John Ryan who runs the group, Castlebridge Inspire, said the idea was born after the head of Guinness travelled to Castlebridge to purchase hops for the brewery.
"It all started here. This is the birthplace of the Guinness book records," he said.
"In 1951, the MD of Guinness, Sir Hugh Beaver was here and there was an argument started after a game shoot, where they were trying to work out the fastest game bird in Europe. The resolution to that argument was to create a book of facts, to resolve all future arguments of fact," Mr Ryan added.
The Guinness Book of Records is now in its 70th year, so to mark that the people of Castlebridge are trying to get their hands on at least one copy of every edition that's been published.
They are still missing a few but the aim is that they will put them on display to promote the connection.
After a recent appeal on RTÉ's Liveline, which prompted multiple listeners to search their attics and scour their bookshelves for old editions, the group was sent ten copies that they had been unable to procure.
They are still searching for the 1957, 1963 and 1974 editions but with more than 150 million copies sold to date they are confident they will eventually track them down.
Mairead Stafford, a local artist and businesswoman who is involved with the project said the aim is to ultimately display the full collection of the books in Castlebridge House or the local reading rooms which the group are working towards getting restored in the coming years.
"The story of Castlebridge and the House and the Guinness World Records is such an amazing story and it's been the hidden secret for so many years," she said.
"There's a group of us now that are just trying to get it highlighted and get the story back out there again. It's a global story. It's got so much inspiration in it for everybody."
Craig Glenday, Editor in Chief of Guinness Word Records said the appeal of an idea that began in a small village in Wexford continues to endure across the globe today with almost two million books sold last year and an average of 1000 record attempts submitted every month.
"They had a big, expensive library at Castlebridge House and yet no books had the answer because books weren't formulated that way.
"The encyclopaedias were very different. So Hugh Beaver realised that there'd be people arguing all over the country, about all sorts of things and that some kind of book is needed," Mr Glenday said.
He added that Mr Beaver was also thinking of interesting marketing plans for Guinness, "so he had this genius idea putting these two things together".
"He said, we'll have a book behind the bar in all the pubs in Britain and Ireland so if you ever have a debate or an argument, you just stop the argument, you have a pint of Guinness, and you reach for the Book of Records. And that's how it got started," Mr Glenday said.
"He got Norris and Ross McWhirter, who were twins, identical twins, with this amazing, almost photographic memory and they produced the first edition. It was given free to about 50,000 pubs in the UK and Ireland but it kept getting stolen, so they decided to sell, and it became a best seller."
Mr Glenday said the publication has grown into a "global phenomena" and despite a decline in book sales, its place on the bestseller list endures.
"It was a best seller that Christmas in the UK. It went on the US the next year. Recently we've done a Mongolian edition, a Korean edition, so people are really hungry for it, and I'm really pleased to see that they're still hungry for it.
"Last year we were Christmas number one, we were the number one book on Amazon and its just really satisfying to know that people are still reading actual books, physical books," he said.
Mr Glenday said when the internet evolved, people were saying that it was going to kill books and that there will not be any need for books.
"But in fact, we've seen that there's so much information now that's the problem. You have this huge, big tsunami of information, not all of it's true," he said.
However, he stressed that it is getting worse with fake news and AI.
"What we do, is we provide the filter to that. I can tell you the largest tin whistle ensemble happened in Wexford because I was there and I counted everyone.
"I can tell you the world's tallest man is eight foot three because I measured him. And that's the real value. When you have so much information you have this filter," he said.
The book is no longer associated with the drinks brand that gave it its name and the company behind it has changed hands numerous times over the past three decades.
Mr Glenday said: "Diageo who owned Guinness, sold us off at the beginning of the 2000s. They got rid of all the non alcohol assets and we were actually sold to Thomas the Tank Engine.
"So Thomas the Tank Engine bought the Guinness Book of Records. Thomas got bought by Bob the Builder, and we got dragged along with that. Bob's now owned by Mattel.
"So Barbie owns Bob, I suppose you could say. And at some point we were separated off and sold to the Jim Patterson group, which is a Canadian individual who just lets us get on with it, which is great.
"We have this huge reach but such a little company with little humble beginnings, we've got very long tentacles that go all around the world."
He said the most popular section is always the human body "because we all have a human body, and we can relate it to some of the records".
Mr Glenday also noted enduring categories such as tallest man, shortest man and shortest woman.
"We love the fingernails record, everyone remembers the fingernails, it's such a visceral, amazing image. That's someone who's choosing to to grow long fingernails, they're not born that way, they just decide they want to do this and that's fascinating. There's also huge interest in pets," he said.
He said the record that changes hands most consistently is oldest person, "for obvious reasons, because they don't necessarily last a long time in that category".
He said several different categories depend on what is fashionable at the time.
"We have a huge surge in street hockey for some reason, we've had loads of claims for that. And you see trends like fidget spinning, twerking, loom bands, the Harlem Shake, it comes and goes in waves. What's interesting is the book provides that snapshot over time," he said.
"This amazing idea that started in Wexford and is still going strong, because it was such a powerful idea and that really caught everyone's imagination. I love the randomness of all this, something that happened during the buying of hops or malt, suddenly turns into a global phenomenon."