Pint Sized Ireland – In Search of the Perfect Guinness

Review by Philip Blazdell

Warning, this book will drive you to drink. Should you find yourself reading this book within the vicinity of a pub you will be forced to enter said pub and partake in a pint or two of 'moother's milk.' At first, much like the author, you may find the rich creaminess of Guinness rather unpalatable, but after you have sunk a few more and enjoyed the craic you will be addicted.

Evan McHugh arrives in Ireland with Twidkiwodm (the-woman-I-didn't-know-I-would-one-day-marry) and is immediately horrified at the taste of his first pint of Guinness, 'actually,' he declares wiping creamy froth from his lip, 'regret is the word that best describes my first experience of Guinness.'

However, undeterred, and showing characteristic Aussie wit and charm, he travels around the Emerald Isle in search of the perfect Guinness. On his amusing, and well written travels, he meets exactly the type of characters that one has come to associate with Ireland (i.e. they are all friendly, all love drinking and are welcoming to tourists. It often makes me wonder if rude, aggressive and unfriendly Irish people instantly shy away from writers or are secretly locked up by the local tourist agency). He is sung an Irish love song that is supposed to lead to marriage (and does, though the author is quite coy about this), he goes rowing with an absurdly dressed German bagpiper on the lakes of Killarney, windsurfing with a one-armed man in a freezing Scottish loch, survives an encounter with the illicit spirit called 'poteen', which is guaranteed to turn you blind and generally fall in love with the Emerald Isle.

Ultimately, the perfect pint is always in the next town, the next country or in a bar which is hidden deep in local legend and anecdote and the author is forced to conclude that, 'the perfect Guinness is really just a question of being in the right place at the right time...but if you end up enjoying yourself so much that you forget all about the searching...my guess is you have probably found what you are looking for.'

This is a lovely book, well, written, full of humorous anecdotes and works both as a travelogue and as a guide to drinking in Ireland. One of the real joys of this book is the way that the author captures the nuances and syntax of the way the people speak ('"Rooit", said the pub-landlord, "in ye coom"'). After a few pages you find yourself falling into this yourself and by the time you finish the book you will have developed a full-blown Irish accent.

Overall this is a well-written, amusing and informative book. Although it's undemanding reading, it is a book which will leave you feeling good about the world, and perhaps, if you are lucky, introduce you to the joys of Guinness.

Slainte!