10 November 1951

The birthplace of Guinness World Records

Sir Hugh Beaver, then managing director of Guinness, was shooting on the North Slob outside Castlebridge. He missed a golden plover, and the party fell to arguing about whether the golden plover or the red grouse was the fastest game bird in Europe.

The North Slob, outside Castlebridge, Co. Wexford — The North Slob, where the shoot took place.

That evening, at dinner in Castlebridge House, the argument was still going and nobody could settle it. Beaver went looking for a reference book that would answer the question and found that no such book existed. If the argument could not be settled here, he reasoned, the same argument was being had in every pub in Ireland and Britain — and a book that settled them might do rather well.

Castlebridge House, Co. Wexford — Castlebridge House, where the argument carried on over dinner.

The first Guinness Book of Records was published in August 1955. It went to the top of the British bestseller list by Christmas, and has since become one of the best-selling books in the world.

Every record since — every attempt, in every country — traces back to an argument nobody could win, in a village in County Wexford.

Seventy-five years

The argument was on 10 November 1951, so the 75th anniversary year runs from 10 November 2026 to 10 November 2027. The record attempt falls inside it, in the spring.

Castlebridge Inspire exists to look after that story and to keep it living: record holders are invited back to the village to tell how they did it, and people setting out to break records are invited to say so publicly at the Stone of Inspiration. The Longest Debate is the next of those attempts, and the first to go back to the argument itself.