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‘I AM VERY anxious to know if there is a St Patrick’s Well in or near Dublin,” inquired an apparently innocent letter to The Irish Times, simply signed “An Irish Girl”, two days before St Patrick’s Day in 1900, writes Karl Whitney.“I believe there is one in Messrs Cantrell and Cochrane’s yard,” the letter continued, “but whether it is accessible or not, I do not know”.

One canny reader immediately smelled a rat, presuming the letter to be a marketing ruse cooked up by the company, and wrote the following day that, “the courteous manager . . . will not, I am sure, hesitate to show “Irish Girl” the celebrated well on their premises that affords the copious draughts of water for their renowned effervescing qualities”. The letter was signed, cheekily, “An Irish Boy”.