Monday 8 October 2012

Footsteps Help Leixlip Celebrate Opening Of Arthur Guinness Square




Square deal for Arthur in Leixlip

At the Arthurs Day celebrations in Leixlip was The Town Crier Robert Forshaw. Photo John Barrett.
At the Arthurs Day celebrations in Leixlip was The Town Crier Robert Forshaw. Photo John Barrett.
LEIXLIP’s Main Street car park is now officially Arthur Guinness Square.
Following good work by the Town Council, its chairman, Colm Purcell officially named the Square and unveiled an information board celebrating the history of Guinness in Leixlip at the Liffey riverside on 27 September.
The Brewer’s Way and Arthur’s Walk are also part of the new Leixlip, which the result of much planning and work by a Town Council sub-committee convened by Cllr. Anthony Larkin.
Cllr. Larkin said there had been a “hot debate” over the naming of the Square.
Patrick Guinness said Arthur was “a very ordinary person” when he brewed in Leixlip before moving to Dublin.
His brother, Richard, had a lease on the Salmon Leap, now in sad decline and unused as a public house, until 1803.
Cllr. Colm Purcell said there are proposals to create an Arthur route taking in Leixlip, Celbridge, Oughterard, which would cater for walkers and cyclists.
Cllr. Purcell told the Leader that Leixlip and Celbridge had to work together on this tourism project. Celbridge Tidy Town Association is planning to erect a €30,000 statue to Arthur, probably near Castletown Gates.
However, the fate of the Salmon Leap Inn, now closed, but once run by the Guinness family, has been lamented.
- Henry Bauress