Why are we called “Castlebridge”?

What’s in a name?

Our company name was chosen with care to reflect our focus on the importance of good quality data to support critical business decisions.

Did you know that the Guinness Book of World Records was invented in a small village in the South-East of Ireland called Castlebridge?

In November 1951 the Managing Director of Guinness Breweries, Sir Hugh Beaver, was on a shooting trip in Castlebridge Co. Wexford. The legend is that he missed a shot at a golden plover and subsequently had a disagreement with other members of the group about whether the Golden Plover was Europe’s fastest game bird.

He could not find reliable reference data to confirm his view that the plover was the fastest bird.

From a data question, an information empire!

Sir Hugh realised that other people probably had a need to have important questions like this answered. He figured that anyone who could produce such a master data source of facts would have a valuable product on their hands.

In 1954, Guinness commissioned the McWhirter brothers to compile what would become the Guinness Book of Records, which was first printed in August 1955 and given away as a promotional item. The book went on to be the definitive reference data source for World Records, all of which were subject to extensive and intensive scrutiny to ensure accuracy and data quality in the book.

Sir Hugh Beaver’s data problem about a small game bird has, over the years, turned into a multi-million dollar business empire.

The Castlebridge Lesson: Even Small Data can lead to Big Business Value.

Newsletter

Keep up to date with all our latest insights, podcast, training sessions, and webinars.