Leave it to the Irish to find a solution to a problem with alcohol that involves...alcohol. Thursday marks the 250th anniversary of the creation of Guinness beer by Arthur Guinness.
Mr. Guinness was concerned that his fellow Emerald Islanders were getting so drunk so often on whiskey. He was a devout Protestant (shhh! Don't tell the Father!) who saw this as a great social ill, in addition to the fact that people spent so much on their chief beverages of choice they had less money left over for food.
He prayed for God to show him a way to help his countrymen, and wound up leasing a brewery in Dublin (for nine thousand years -- somebody should have told the Brits about this before they signed their agreement for Hong Kong). At that brewery, he created a very heavy beer that was thick enough you couldn't drink as much as you could of a lighter liquid like whiskey. It had a lower alcohol content and the heavy stout had a decent portion of what are now recommended daily minerals.
The link says that public drunkenness in rural Ireland did decrease after Guinness became popular but doesn't offer a citation for that. But a wee bit o' blarney nivver did any more harm than a nip o' the stout, so I see no reason to disagree. Serious researchers may refer to this volume should they feel the need to tarnish such a good story with facts.
Although what the Guinness family will do when that lease comes up in 10,759 AD is something that worries me. I'm figuring the landlord's going to want to bump the price a bit.
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