Not sure Mr Guinness technically invented the black stuff. According to Pete Brown's excellent history of beer (a man walks into a pub) dark beers were common everywhere in these isle for centuries. It's just that guinness were the first to formalise and mass produce them and then during first world war the toasting of barley to make stout was banned to save energy to make tanks and so Guinness based in Ireland took over the market. That is not to say he wasn't a top bloke just that he didn't "invent" stout. Also what about Alec?
Ps. Daniel Day-Lewis is just too annoyingly thespy to be on the good list.

is lovely too, though I've only ever stumbled across it in one pub. Then stumbled out some time later. Worth tracking down.

with saint's days but why no best/worst welsh, scots, manx, english, yorkshire people ?

looking forward to reading that on Thursday, any mention of myself or Ivan?

(That's what my friend calls Guinness.)

Chris G – thanks for the stout history. I didn't know some of that, so thank you.

I picked Arthur Guinness as a) Guinness make the best stout (I've drunk enough of it) and b) it's one of the most famous alcohol brands globally so as an 'export power' Mr. Guinness has been second to none.

Although, if the barman sticks a shamrock on the top of your pint, throw it out the window. And 'Extra Cold' Guinness is cheating.

spt – there were Irish women in there too.

I'm not having a go, obviously.

Namely Oyster Stout (Marstons) and Pitch Black (Everards). Fine beers both and would certainly hold their own if Mr Guinness wanted to 'take it outside'.

Really? That 'gob' quote *is* from Eerin go Braghag innit? Yes yes yes yes yes - my hero.
He also said in the same song 'alcohol doesn't heal sadness, it just puts it out of focus'. 6 page feature next month please.

The late great Eamonn Andrews...Joe Dolan....Gavin Friday...Eoin McLove?

Could the Word not decide whch way to swing, or did they realise that we've heard enough about him already!

Fatima Mansions were the saving grace of the early 90s. Viva la Dead Ponies what a great lp

to just have all the cast of Father Ted in there. A shame to include Mrs Doyle (a fictional personage) but not include Dermot Morgan or Ardal O'Hanlon.

It could have run to 4 pages really to make room for Gabriel Byrne, Peter O'Toole, Roddy Doyle, Dave Allen (surely on the 'best' side), Dara O'Briain, Saint Bob, Flann O'Brien, Roy Keane, Shane Macgowan, Paddy Maloney, Michael O'Leary (very much on the 'worst' side), Iain Dowie, Ian Paisley, Val Doonican, at least one Nolan sister and many more.

will be after youse noy, sonny jim!

All the auld lads round our way drink Guinness in a bottle off the shelf and go mental when they see anybody drinking draught. where's Stiff Little Fingers or good old Buckfast[ a Lurgan drink exported to Glasgow by travelling old firm fans back in the 70's

it should be Pedantry Corner...

Page 21 : "Colin Farrell : can YOU name any of his films".

Page 72 : In Bruges : "perfectly performed", including, presumably, by one Colin Farrell.

Still, what do I think this is, collective responsibility ?
Balls to that. Keep up the inconsistency.

And well spotted with Dave Fanning. Back in the late 70s when British radio stopped after the Peel show was when we walloped the dial to RTE on the other end of the medium wave and hoped the signal would reach Glasgow. DF was by no means just an Irish thing.

How come no Alex Higgins in the list? Belfast b and b, smoked so much he got throat cancer, drank so much he pissed in a plantpot during a game, major swordsman, greatest snooker player world has ever seen, cried when he won the title, etc. What more do we want?

Good - for the way he played snooker
Bad - for the rather nasty individual he could (and still can) be in public.

Admitedly only flicked through it when it got here today, but couldn't find the following legends (to me anyway)

Glen Hansard (the Frames)
Gemma Hayes
Damien Rice
Lisa Hannigan

just a thought...

Paul Brady in the "good" list.
Or indeed Christy Moore. Preferably a few spaces between so they don't start scrapping, again, about how the "Troubles" should be commemorated in song.
("Troubles"? ask yer Dad or see a recent newspaper.)

Really pleased you found room for the great man. Growing up in 1970's Belfast, his show after MOTD was about the only regular voice of sanity seen or heard on the box.

Perhaps he hasn't dated well, my English wife described him as a Norn Iron Dick Emery which is unfortunate but not entirely inaccurate.

Still this still made me laugh;

surely the Give my Head Peace gang should have been considered for the Worst. As should Stephen Nolan.

No Bono? No Geldof? Strikes me you went for the easy or dead targets.

Where was Neil Hannon?
Especially as he later featured in "a little way on a lot".
I saw him at the Albert Hall the day after John Peel died, and got it bang on by playing "Absent Friends", a full orchestral cover of "Atmosphere", then "The Happy Goth". Admirable.

in the worst group, no way! All this crap about 'wasted talent' - he was the best footballer in the world for two or three years at least, proved it at the highest level, has probably given more pleasure to the public than anyone on that list, and gave a beleaguered nation a sense of common pride throughout some of its darkest years.

(ie Eamonn Holmes), however I had half-expected Alan Green to join the baddies.

Just a little note to say that while Dave Fanning has done some interesting work in some of the years gone by, I would never have regarded him as "the Irish John Peel" and still don't. There are a couple of other less well known DJ's in Ireland who would be viewed more in that vein (Donal Dineen, John Kelly for example). It is probably a personal taste thing as well, but Dave Fanning never really appealed to me and many of my friends at home in Ireland, and yet Peel did, though he was broadcasting from the other side of the sea. and Somehow there was more of a sense of trust in terms of quality with John Peel, it is quite hard to articulate, but he had something no-one has had before or since, maybe a sense of magic about what he did that went beyond any kind of neat explanation or sense of responsibility.Peel was unique and to think of someone as an Irish 'version' of that seems strange, especially since it does not tally anyway, Peel was far more rebellious, and aware of the underground scenes than Dave Fanning, who knew a lot of what was going on, but often by virtue of Ireland being a really small country. He did champion some interesting Irish bands, but also some terrible overblown rubbish, and as he has got older it seems to have become worse, whereas Peel never faltered in his pursuit for interesting music, it could be Marc Bolan, Destroyer, Vashti Bunyan or 808 State. There is no comparable DJ in any corner of the world, but at least there are still some great DJ's who are trying to continue on with Peel's legacy, but they are not as visible perhaps as someone like Dave Fanning.

I've no axe to grind with the fellow but, from the limited vantage point of having been on his show from a remote location as a pundit a couple of times, I have the distinct impression he's not really interested. He breezes in, spouts his guff - which, for those unable to listen (in the UK or elsewhere), is like a hyperactive umming and erring faux-not-quite-together-one-of-the-lads bantering version of the Mark Radcliffe approach (minus any detectable similarity in humanity or any similar feeling that he might be an interesting bloke to bump into and have a chat with).

He makes very liberal use of his researchers and producer - who DO care, who ARE interested - which, of course, is what they're there for. But... well, you get my drift. I was on once (having happily given his researcher a great deal of material on people from the North who'd made some kind of international contribution in music, some in a background sort of way) with someone from the Undertones and the quirky Northern woman from the Commitments talking about music from the North of I, and it was oddly disarming to be discussing something on air and then have Dave dive in and 'trump' me with my own material, as it were (clearly just reading names off a list but allowing the impression that he knew everything there was to know about these people).

Whereas Radcliffe would have said something amusing and endearing like, 'So, Col, um, er, ah, I believe there was, um, er, some bloke from Larne in a mid-80s version of Wishbone Ash. Now there's a phrase you don't get to say much on the radio these days, eh Stu?! A veritable titan among footnotes, surely! One for the, um, er, next Trivial Pursuit: Rock Dinosaurs Of County Antrim edition, I'd say... Anyway, here's a new one from, um, er, ah, Tame Impala, and after that the um, er, ah, um, er, Nodmeister of Holdersworthy with some fascinating insights into um, er, ah, how to wear a load of mirrors on yer top hat...'