Cocktail festival

Guinness has retained its position as the world’s most valuable Irish brand, according to a new report from brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance. Thanks to increased demand for the product in a post-pandemic world, the brand value of Guinness has increased by a quarter this year, while organic net sales have grown by 32%. According to Brand Finance, Guinness is increasingly being recognised as one of the most creative, innovative and sustainable beers in the world. Recent initiatives have increased its visibility around the world, such as a pan-African campaign that attracted 1.5 million new Guinness drinkers. The brand is also investing in innovation and marketing, with recent award-winning dispense and liquid innovations and new visitor experiences set to open in Chicago and London in

Brand Finance’s latest report also shows that Baileys has the highest familiarity rating at 75% of any spirit brand in the UK, with almost 90% of those consumers who report being familiar with Baileys considering it. Baileys is also developing a reputation as one of the world's leading brands that prioritises responding to the needs of stakeholders and society, as they strive to build and nurture an iconic brand that is inclusive and sustainable.

Irish Distillers has partnered with Ancestry.ie to deliver more than 50 years of historical Jameson publicans’ agreements, available to search for free until the end of April on the family history website. The Publican Agreements, which comprise 37 digitised volumes, each containing approximately 1,500 individual contracts, are legal agreements between John Jameson & Son and publicans who bought whiskey in bulk in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century. Traditionally, Jameson had two routes to market. One was to bottle in-house and sell directly to the consumer, while the second was to sell by the barrel to publicans. With the latter, labels were supplied to the individual publicans by the Bow Steet Distillery and publicans would bottle the whiskey inhouse and add their name to the label. To ensure that the whiskey was not tampered with in any way, publicans were required to sign an annual legal agreement which had to be witnessed and often signed by a customer on the premises. The records contain the name and address of every publican who purchased Jameson in bulk at that time, in addition to the name and occupation of witnesses, thus providing a unique insight into the role of the Irish pub in the community at that time.

Carol Quinn, Head of Archives at Irish Distillers, said: “Through the digitisation of these records, we have created a unique information source that can be used to document the Irish pub in its heyday. We now understand that there has been a serious decline in the number of pubs in Ireland, which is why these records are even more important as they provide a socio-economic history of a vanished Ireland.”