The Breens and later Nunns were major suppliers of malt to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. As such, Castlebridge House was often visited by officials from the Guinness breweries. It was during one such visit that the first twinkling of a book of records began. After Sir Hugh Beaver, who was the managing director of the Guinness Breweries missed a shot at a golden plover during a shooting party in the North Slob on 10th November 1951, he became involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the red grouse – it is the plover. Later that evening during dinner at Castlebridge House he realized that there were no reference books which could answer his question.
This led Beaver to wondering how many other such questions were debated throughout Ireland and abroad and he realised then that a book supplying the answers to this type of question might prove successful. Guinness employee, Christopher Chataway introduced Beaver to his university friends Norris and Ross McWhirther, who ran a fact finding agency in London. The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records appeared in 1955 and Castlebridge handballer’s entered the Guinness Book of Records on Sunday 28th September 1986.
Today Guinness World Records sells more than a 100 million copies in 100 different countries, in 37 languages and is the world’s bestselling copyrighted book ever.
