Fancy trying to break a record?

This day next week, Belturbet will try to set the record for the biggest fancy dress party in Ireland. PAUL FENNESTlooks at the bizarre world of Irish record-breakers

‘THERE’S A need to push ourselves. It’s what separates us from animals. We look to achieve rather than just survive. It’s innately human.”

This is the reason given by Craig Glenday, director of the Guinness World Records’ London base, as to why a person would attempt to set a world record for, say, “the loudest burp”, or “the most rattlesnakes held in the mouth”.

Ireland has a high reputation with regard to record-breaking. According to Glenday, we currently lie “25th” in the record-breaking league table (the US are the clear front-runners) with “103 Irish nationals” holding world records.

Last year, Tullamore, Co Offaly hosted the world’s largest traditional session, when 2,852 registered musicians played for 56 minutes at O’Connor Square in the town. In April, Tommy Tiernan broke the world record for the longest solo stand-up comedy show, with 36 hours and 15 minutes of self-proclaimed “gigglement”.

In June, Ryan Hunt, manager of Faithlegg Golf Club in Co Waterford, was one of the primary organisers of a recent world record-breaking success. Along with 630 other golfers, he helped break the record for the highest number of golfers playing 18 holes in 24 hours (though the record remains subject to ratification from Guinness).

“A member of the club, John Warren, got a Guinness World Records book for Christmas and he just wanted to take it on.”

He undertook the challenge primarily as a means of aiding First Tee Ireland, which mixes “life skills with golf” and introduces the game to youngsters from impoverished backgrounds who “wouldn’t normally have the opportunities to play”.

Yet, Ireland is not always a record-obsessed nation, as Kate Byrne of Attachment Parenting EU discovered when she tried to initiate the Irish section of a global breastfeeding record attempt. She describes this endeavour, aimed at raising awareness of the health issues surrounding breastfeeding, as an “unmitigated disaster”.

“The record was broken, but Ireland weren’t really involved at all. You needed a specific number of groups, 54, and Ireland had 11, which is pathetic really.”

One Irish record that seems safe is Dublin Zoo’s claim to fame for holding the largest teddy bears’ picnic ever. In 1995, the zoo facilitated an incredible 33,753 bears and allowed accompanying children into the zoo free of charge.

The achievement was reaffirmed this year when the zoo failed to break its own record – managing a mere 26,500 bears.

This day next week, the organisers of the Festival of the Erne in Belturbet, Co Cavan, will attempt to break the record for the largest street fancy-dress party in Ireland.

“Last year, the sergeant in Belturbet estimated that about 6,000 people took to the streets of Belturbet, which is a small village,” says organiser Mark Leonard, “and we want to make this the biggest street party in Ireland.” The biggest is currently thought to be Derry.

The festival has printed 20,000 wristbands that will be sold on the day for €5. The organisers hope this will help them make an accurate estimate of the numbers. The proceeds go back into the running of the festival.

Selling wristbands at €5 each helps you tot up how many people have a spare fiver, but it doesn’t seem to make for accurate crowd measurement (as there may be thousands more people who turn up but don’t buy wristbands).

It is not necessary to buy a wristband, nor even to dress up, in order to participate in the street party, so this may not be a very serious record-breaking attempt. However, Mark Leonard encourages people to pay the €5, in order to support the festival and to assist with the record-breaking attempt.

This effort will not be officially sanctioned by the Guinness Book of Records, but it will generate publicity and raise funds for the festival. Although Belturbet won’t be entering the Guinness Book of Records any time soon, the party sounds like good fun.

So what, then, is the secret to a successful record attempt?

“Of all the entries we get,” says Glenday, “80 per cent of them will be disqualified immediately because they’re too dangerous or too stupid or not interesting enough to get into – I mean, we’re trying to sell books so it has to be interesting.”