The Margin was fascinated by a snippet of information in a new book called The Murphy's Story The History of the Lady's Well Brewery, Cork, written by Diarmuid O Drisceoil and Donal O Drisceoil. A fascinating and well-produced volume, it provides many insights into life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

But what caught the Margin's attention was the tale of Sir John Arnott, born in Scotland in 1814 and who became a prominent business figure in Ireland. A Lord Mayor of Cork three times and a Liberal MP for Kinsale between 1859 and 1861, he purchased a brewery in Cork which produced beer and ale and did a major trade with British army canteens in the Republic.

His other interests were the Cork Park racecourse, a bakery, a string of shops including Arnotts. And no less than The Irish Times newspaper, which he purchased in 1873. Unfortunately, the current staff of this newspaper never benefited from the many, er, synergies which might have been formed through joint ownership with a beer company. Arnott sold the brewery to the Murphy family in 1901, although the Arnott family retained an interest in The Irish Times for another half century.