AMONG the multitude of continental tourists injecting some seasonal spending power into the economy this week is Mr Michael Ghessi from Milan who, although alarmed at the poor exchange rate for his lira, is enthusiastic about the sights and sounds of Dublin city. The obligatory viewing of the "Book of Kells" was followed, on the advice of this column, by a sojourn in several well-known Dublin licensed premises.

Observing the reverential relationship between the average pint drinker and the dark creamy liquid, he wound his way up to St James Gate, the spiritual home of the nation's favourite tipple. Perhaps it was the limitations of his English, or an implicit understanding of the monastic devotion required to stare for, hours at, a pint glass, which prompted Mr Ghessi to talk in terms of his wonderful experience at the Guinness "breviary". An understandable confusion and not so far off the mark. Any habitual pint drinker can testify that the daily ritual demands the repeated intonation of orders.