The 250th Anniversary of Sir Arthur Guinness' 9,000 Year Lease
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Today we celebrate Sir Arthur Guinness and his shrewdness. For today is the 250th anniversary of the lease he signed in the year 1759. For a mere 100 pounds down and the promise to pay 45 pounds in annual rent he obtained the leasehold interest in St. James’s Gate in Dublin for a period of 9,000 years. This is the place where Arthur Guinness first brewed that amazing dark ale known as Guinness. From Archbishop Price Sir Arthur inherited 100 pound and turned it into a business that lasted for over 250 years.
Barbara is Irish. So for our honeymoon we ventured to Dublin to walk the streets where James Joyce lived and wrote. St. James Gate no longer is the place where Guinness is brewed but it remains intact along with a pub atop the Guinness Storehouse. From the pub you can sip a Guinness while looking out over the City of Dublin.
If you’d like to take a podcast tour of the Dublin City Center and the Guinness Storehouse follow the links. The audio file plays on iTunes and is in Italian, German, French and Spanish.
My stepdaughter, Katrina (I nicknamed her Fenway.) is an L1- at the University Of Iowa College Of Law in Iowa City. This first semester she has contracts with Professor Peggie Smith; a Harvard and Yale grad. I suggested she could write her way into history at the law school if in todays contracts class she followed this advice.
What you should do to impress everyone is in contracts class give an answer to the professor's question and then announce, "... But the most famous contract is being celebrated today, the day which marks the contracts 250th anniversary. If you know the contract to which I refer you then know why thousands of people will today take a day off of work to celebrate it. The contract has been in place since the year 1759. And if this school were as good to its students as is Trinity College in Dublin to theirs, we would all be allowed a free pint of Guinness each and every day." Then sit down, reach into your purse, take out a can of Guinness, pour it into a Guinness glass, offer up a toast and for the rest of your life everyone will be talking about Fenway on Guinness Day.
Katrina, here’s a toast to the Irish!
May you have the hindsight to know where you've been
the foresight to know where you're going
and the insight to know when you're going too far.
Fenway must know this Irish blessing because she didn’t take my advice.