Celebrate the first St Patrick’s Day of the new decade in style by trying a Guinness Black Velvet cocktail or impress your mates down the pub with some St Patrick’s Day facts & stats, plus tips on how to enjoy the perfect pint of Guinness!

Wednesday, March 17th, will see people from all over the UK heading down to pubs and bars for a mid week party to raise a pint of the beloved black stuff in celebration of St Patrick’s Day.

Thousands of pub owners will be decorating their interiors with those famous black, white & green decorations and gearing up for the ultimate St Patrick’s Day party of the new decade.

How to drink the perfect pint of GUINNESS

This St. Patrick’s Day, when you are raising a pint of GUINNESS with friends to say cheers to the Irish, be sure to follow Master Brewer, Fergal Murray’s guide to the perfect way to enjoy a pint of the ‘black stuff’:

*Hold the glass with the Guinness harp facing you and your thumb over the harp
*Never look down. Look at the horizon and bring the glass to your mouth, not your mouth to the glass
*Take a sip, breaking the seal of the head of your pint
*Enjoy the Guinness cream moustache left on the top of your lip
*Each time you take a drink from the pint, hold the glass in the same position and repeat above, letting the liquid flow underneath the head of the pint
*Expect to experience the malty sweetness at the front of your mouth, the roasted flavour at the side and the distinctive Guinness bitterness at the back

With over 5 million pints of the black stuff to be sold this year….

GUINNESS Brings St Patrick’s Day to Life

Join St Patrick’s Day celebrations at your local

With party celebrations set to last well into the weekend, the makers of Guinness are set to join in one of the liveliest parties of the year by sending out St Patrick Day party kits to thousands of pubs across the UK. Each kit will be filled with iconic black, white & green white hats & props, limited edition glassware & cash prize competitions that will help bring the party to life. Guinness has been marking St. Patrick’s Day for over 15 years and this year is no different with over 5 million pints of Guinness expected to be sold in the UK.

Celebrate St Patrick’s Day with GUINNESS

St Pat’s facts

*Over 5 million pints of Guinness are sold in the UK each year on St. Patrick’s Day
*Over 13 million pints of Guinness are raised on St. Patrick’s Day across the globe, which brings more than 150 pints to life every second
*Guinness has been marking St. Patrick’s Day, one of the liveliest calendar celebrations for over 15 years
*Last year, Guinness celebrated 250 years since the signing of the 9,000 year lease at St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin
*The St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin produces 4 million pints of Guinness every day
*Today, Guinness is popular around the world and sold in more than 150 countries
*Gas bubbles travel downwards, instead of upwards, bringing a pint of Guinness to life with its famous surge and settle motion

Black Velvet Recipe and History

Ingredients:
Flute of Champagne
Flute of GUINNESS Extra Stout
Serves 1 (1.3 units)

GUINNESS mixed fifty fifty with Champagne. Legend has it that this famous drink was invented in 1861 at Brook’s Club in London. Prince Albert had died, everyone was in mourning, and the story goes that the steward at the club, overcome with the emotion of the occasion, ordered that even the champagne should be put into mourning, and proceeded to mix it with GUINNESS. The taste was so delicious, Black Velvet became extremely popular.

Anna Brown’s Beef, Onion & Guinness Pie

For this recipe be sure to use shin beef as it is well suited to the long slow cooking process. Stewing steak tends to disintegrate, as opposed to shin beef which has gelatinous fibres running through it.

1.5Kg Shin Beef cut into 2″ cubes
2 medium onions peeled and sliced onions
1 tablespoon flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 pt Guinness
1 pt beef stock
1 pack ready roll puff pastry

Method
Place the cubed shin beef and the onion in a casserole dish and coat with the seasoned flour. Pour in the Guinness and the stock and bring to simmer gently on the hob. Cover with a tightly fitting lid and place in an oven preheated to 140 Celsius for at least 2 to 3 hours until beef is tender.

Cook pastry as per the pack instructions, cut into individual portions about 5″ by 5″ square. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes and spring greens.

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St George and the Modern Day

Despite the patron saint’s dashing credentials, the tradition of Saint George’s Day had waned by the end of the 18th century when union took place with Scotland.

Ironic then that Burn’s Night, the Scottish celebration, and St Patrick’s Day are more widely celebrated in England than the country’s own National Day.

But things are about to change, however.

In 2006 Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, proposed in the House of Commons that St George’s Day should be a public holiday and a campaign is afoot to give Saint George’s Day the recognition it deserves. Recently the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, gave his backing to the movement which he said had been ignored in London for far too long.

English Heritage, the Royal Society of Saint George, and the St George’s Day Events Company are just three organisations dedicated to encouraging and promoting celebrations, whilst the St George Unofficial Bank Holiday calls for people to take the day off work and celebrate their Englishness!

This year, events will take place in London in Trafalgar Square and across the country, including parades, maypole dancing, Morris dancing, theatrical and musical shows, and food festivals.

Saint George’s Day – 23rd April

Saint George, the patron saint of England, is also a romantic figure of medieval romance and legends: a chivalrous knight, a devout martyr and most famously, a heroic slayer of dragons.

Despite his ubiquitous presence in churches, paintings, frescoes and English literature, St. George himself is an unlikely choice for patron saint of England as he is celebrated in many nations across the world -  he wasn’t English and probably never even visited the country.

Nevertheless, the date of his death on April 23rd became England’s National Day, and by the fifteenth century was a major feast and national holiday rivalled only by Christmas.

Saint George became a household name: mentioned by Bunion in Pilgrim’s Progress; in Shakespeare’s Henry V, his name is invoked before battle – “Cry God for Harry, England and Saint George!”; and secular mummers’ plays revolved around his character.

In later years his name was adopted by King George V, who instituted the George Cross for acts of great heroism, the highest decoration awarded to civilians.

The Real Saint George

St George is usually depicted as an allegorical figure: sitting on a horse, brandishing a shield and cross, as the cringing dragon expires beneath his sword, but the real Saint George was made of flesh and blood and was born in Roman times to a noble family in Libya.

Raised as a Christian, he became a Tribunus in the army of the Emperor Diocletian and part of the Imperial Guard. In the year AD 302 Diocletian decreed that all Christian soldiers should be arrested and those remaining should offer sacrifices to the Pagan Gods.

George refused, and renounced the edict in front of his fellow soldiers. After being cruelly tortured on a wheel of swords, he was publicly executed on April 23  - when it was said that several witnesses were converted to Christianity on seeing his suffering.

Legends of how Saint George slayed the dragon may have their origin in the story of his execution, as historians believe that the dragon is an allegory for Diocletian himself, who was known as “the dragon”.

George and the Dragon

The story tells how a dragon had made its nest in the spring that supplied the people of Silene (probably Cyrene) in Libya, to whom a daily sacrifice of a beautiful maiden had to be made.

As the supply of eligible females dwindled, the only one available was the King of Egypt’s daughter. When St George heard of her plight, he rode to her rescue and fought a long and hard battle with the dragon, during which he was forced to take refuge under the boughs of an orange tree that protected him from the dragon’s poison.

Eventually he managed to pierce its skin through the only part of its body unprotected by its scales: under the dragon’s wing, and George won the heart of the lady.

Becoming Saint George

The legend of George against the Dragon spread throughout the Roman Empire.

George was widely seen as a saint, and his popularity increased among Europeans after the Crusades, when the red cross of St George was worn on the white tunics of the Crusaders to differentiate them from their enemies in battle.

He was canonised by Pope Galasius l in 1494, who played down the more fantastical elements of the story by describing him as among those “whose names are justly reverenced among men but whose acts are known only to God”.

In 1222 the Synod of Oxford declared St George’s Day “a feast day in the kingdom of England”. As the country’s patron saint, St George was called on to save it from enemies in times of peril.

So come on! April 23 is the time to gird your loins, pin a red rose to your lapel, fly the flag of St George and eat some roast beef and Yorkshire pud or fish and chips (or even chicken tikka massala!).

External Links:

St George’s Day Dot Com Website
English Heritage: St George’s Day
The Royal Society of St George
St George’s Day Events Company

 Chester St George’s Day | Liverpool St George’s Day | York St George’s Day | Leeds St George’s Day | Newcastle St George’s Day

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You May Also Be Interested In:

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