Famous pub crawl 'A Bottle of Stout in Every Pub in Buncrana' to be remembered in Derry next weekend

A discussion about a famous pub crawl in Buncrana will be held in Derry next weekend. In 1978, student John Carson submitted a request to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, asking it to sponsor an art project, tentatively titled ‘A Bottle of Guinness in Every Pub in Buncrana’. However, the brewery was not keen on the project. "I cannot see any merit at all in the idea … as it would seem to only perpetuate the myth of the drunken Irish man," a Guinness representative official told Carson in a letter. However, Carson went ahead with the pub crawl and called the project ‘A Bottle of Stout in Every Pub in Buncrana’. He visited the 22 bars which were operated in the town at the time. He had photos of himself taken at the start of the pub crawl, in each of the bars that he visited and at the end of his marathon drinking session. The pubs he visited on the day were: the White Strand Motor Inn, Drift Inn, Lough Swilly Hotel, Lake of Shadows, Hutton’s Anchor Bar, Classic Bar, John O’Doherty’s, Dorrian’s Lounge Bar, Grant’s ‘The Westend’, Muprhy’s Place, Dunree Bar, Brass Rail Bar, Excelsior, Grant’s Bar, Atlantic Hotel, Silver Dollar, Cottage Bar, New Drop Inn, Central Bar, Pat Breslin’s, Porters and Rodden’s. After he had recovered, Carson produced a small booklet on his day out in Buncrana which included his correspondence with Guinness. An exhibition on the project was displayed at Derry’s Orchard Gallery in 1978. Carson went to become head of art at a US university. Last year, artist Sean Lynch and Askeaton Contemporary Arts reissued Carson’s original book. Lynch, Carson and Bernie McAnaney, Carson’s companion on the pub crawl in Buncrana, will be reunited at the Centre for Contemporary Art at Artillery Street in Derry next Saturday, January 21, to discuss the unusual project. This public conversation between John Carson, Sean Lynch and Bernie McAnany marks a return of the work to Derry after almost 40 years. Copies of the re-issued book will be available to buy on the day for €10/£9. Light refreshments will be provided, including Derry Milk Stout, supplied by the Walled City Brewery in Derry. Speaking a number of years ago, Carson recalled his motivation for the project. “It was my intention, in the course of a day, to drink a bottle of Guinness in each of Buncrana's 22 pubs and to produce a colour poster with a photograph of myself at the start of the day, a photograph of each pub and a photograph of myself at the end of the day. “The work was to be a comment on the Irish drinking tradition. “I wrote to Guinness to request their sponsorship for the intended poster. “They refused and the ensuing correspondence changed the outcome of the work into a booklet, which makes wry comment on the ethics of marketing, advertising and sponsorship.” Saturday’s discussion about the Buncrana pub crawl will begin at 1.30pm.