Guinness bottles and stout hearts

A chara, – “Guinness used to send crates of small bottles for nursing mothers at the maternity hospital in Dublin in 1963″ (An Irishman’s Diary, April 10th). Guinness also used to supply bottles of beer to the Blood Transfusion Service to give to donors post-donation. Perhaps a reintroduction of this strategy might help their ambition of increasing donor numbers! – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN FITZPATRICK,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

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Sir, – In Wednesday’s An Irishman’s Diary, there is much reference and discussion about “Baby Guinness”.

Frank McNally speculates that it referred to a half-pint bottle. My blood group is O negative, so I found myself called to the blood bank quite frequently in the Fifties and Sixties.

Having donated my pint, I was always offered a snipe of Guinness, which was a third of a pint. These were donated to the blood bank by Guinness, as far as I know, and not available for sale elsewhere.

Could these be the “Baby Guinnesses” in question? –Yours, etc,

TONY GREANY,

Mornington,

Co Meath.

Sir, – I do remember a bottle of Guinness, slightly smaller than the usual bottle, that was recommended for those believed to be deficient in iron. It was referred to as an invalid stout, and may well have been given to pregnant women also.

This was in the 1950s and 1960s, and possibly earlier. – Yours, etc,

WILLIE KEALY,

Navan,

Co Meath.