The Guinness Ireland group has had a long relationship with the Shannon hotel college, one that's been rewarding for both sides, explains Paul Carty, the man who's heading up the running of the new Guinness Storehouse development.

He explains that the Guinness/Shannon relationship works in various ways. Guinness Ireland is deeply involved with sponsorship for the Shannon 50th anniversary commemoration events this year, so behind many of those events, the Guinness contribution will be evident.

The company also supports an annual scholarship at the Shannon college and Paul Carty was a beneficiary when he was a student there. In 1980, as the recipient of the Guinness scholarship that year, he benefitted in many ways, including going to Cornell University in the US. During the 1990s, Mr Carty worked abroad for eight years, from 1992 until 2000, with the luxury Le Meridien hotel group, in Bahrain and Singapore.