That’s because there are no billionaires anymore

There’s an Irish American called Chuck Feeney who put close to a billion euro into Ireland’s education. http://youtu.be/OMcjxe8slYI

Not all bad, don’t be so negative :P

jp macmanus has given away millions to charities, sporting organisations, and educational facilities in ireland especially in limerick.
granted he is a tax exile, but this does go some way to make up for it

some do.

Doh! *who’s*

I lived beside it for most of my life and that area is about the only thing I miss about Dublin. Could roll out of bed and into the park and, apart from in the Rose Gardens, could let the dogs run free. I saw, when I was passing a few months ago, that the sunken garden is no more.

Hi Stephen,
I had a thought to put in St Anne’s Park (I used to live near there myself and enjoyed it very much!) – I too had always been under the impression that it had been donated by the Guinness family.
However, when I looked into it further, it appeared that while it had been part of a Guinness family estate, it was actually sold to the council rather than donated. Now that may not be entirely accurate but I couldn’t confirm for sure so I thought I had better leave it out until I can. Hope you understand, Thanks, Susan

Ah yes, I think that’s what I had concluded too. (You mean the second Arthur, ie, Lord Ardilaun, right?) Anyway, I was trying to stick to those things that they donated or which showed a particularly philanthropic reason.
I really want to find out more about that sale though, because it is possible that he handed it over for a nominal fee, in which case, it should indeed be added in.
Thanks again, Susan

Yeah, to Martha.

Yes, but had the cathedral not been restored it may have fallen into rack and ruin.

The original St. Patrick’s Cathedral was wooden and burned down, so no it wouldn’t still be here. The ‘restoration’ was a complete rebuild in stone.

“I guess I was always brought up to know about philanthropy and to look after people, but the only thing I really know about Guinness in the 1850s is that they did have the brewery then.”

But the Guinness family showed little of their famed philanthropy during the Famine years.

As millions of people starved, Guinness maintained an iron grip on the country’s barley production – harvesting it not for food but to brew it into stout for the English market.

The starving would look on in despair as barges packed with precious grain sailed along the canals towards Dublin’s St James’s Gate, where the brewery even had its own canal basin.

As the full horrors of the Famine first began take hold in the first nine months of the year now known as “Black ’47″, Guinness exported nearly 300,000 GALLONS of their famous stout to Britain.

They also claimed a large share of the nearly 900,000 gallons of porter that were shipped to England in the same nine months.

The beer, along with exports of bacon, ham, livestock, barley and wheat, was shipped under armed guard to British ports such as Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London, even as the people who produced the food starved to death.

The money the Guinness clan received from these massive sales helped the family to take advantage of less well-off landowners.

As peasants died from hunger or fled from the country, many landlords suddenly found themselves owning large tracts of unfarmed and useless land. Soon they themselves were in financial difficulties, and the Guinnesses used their wealth to buy up a series of family estates in Ireland and England during the Famine and its aftermath.

In the show, Jasmine is read a letter written by Benjamin’s father Arthur, who spent the Famine years in London.

Technically, brewery owner Arthur – son of company founder Arthur who died in 1803 – had moved to Britain leaving the business under his Benjamin’s control.

In the letter, Arthur does express some concern at the conditions in Ireland, but Benjamin subscribed to the official British “laissez- faire” policy, which meant not directly intervening to alleviate the horrors of the starving millions.

Jasmine defends her ancestors on the grounds that they did contribute to Famine relief funds, even though they did not make any charitable donations.

“This is the thing… the Irish have always been very proud and I don’t think you’d want hand-outs if you were a very proud person,” she said.

Jeasus Larry,that is some story.
I honestly never knew of the history of the family.

How very noble and generous of him Patrick. Tomorrow Patrick will praise Queen Victoria who apparently donated some money to famine relief in Ireland.

You might want to specify which one, Seany. There were two of them.

Seany, if you read some of the comments in today’s poll – ‘Do you practise your religion?’ you could say that Arthur was just ahead of his time.

@ John .. so are you saying it is acceptable to hate a certain religious group?

Hennessy’s house used to be Bettyglen house I think, end of Watermill road.