The ROOT of GUINNESS’ FAMILY’S ORIGINS

SOMETIMES
IT’S BETTER to let
sleeping dogs lie – as the fifth generation of the Irish
brewing family of Arthur Guinness found out when DNA tests
were carried out to determine the family origins. Now the
roots of Ireland’s greatest family tree – the Guinness
brewing dynasty – have been exposed. DNA tests carried out
on the family’s male Y chromosome in Trinity College Dublin
at the request of the family, revealed that brewery founder
Arthur Guinness’s claim that he was a descendent of the
Magennis chieftains was wrong, and that the family sprang
from the subsidiary McCartan clan. The discovery takes a
hammer to Arthur Guinness’s reinvention of himself as a man
who revived the fortunes of his aristocratic family. The
Guinness founder’s act of social climbing is said to have
come as a surprise to Patrick Guinness – the five times
great grandson of Arthur and father of the supermodel
Jasmine Guinness – who has recently written a biography on
the St James’s Gate brewer.

The book, entitled arthur’s
round: the life and times of brewing legend arthur guinness,
has publicized details of the tests for the first time and
has detailed the life and times of the world’s most famous
brewery owner which, until now, has remained very much
unknown. The book explains that where Arthur’s genuine
ancestors, the McCartans, once lived is a small village
called Guiness or Ginnies. The Guinness family is so
widespread in England and Ireland and has so many titles
that it is sometimes referred to as ‘The Beerage’.