The Guinness World Records, which originated in County Wexford, is marking 70 years of record-breaking feats
Ireland 'punches above its weight' when it comes to breaking records, the head of the Guinness World Records has said. Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday told"We get 100 applications a day at the minute," he said.
"Probably about 90 to 95% don't make it into the book because they're not very good or they don't meet the current record or they're just not records.Mr Glenday said the book actually has a section looking at some of the more interesting applications."Someone had taken many, many sheets of paper to draw a very long train and at the front of it gave it a very evil face.'The joy of the job'"We get a lot of things that are very strange and for me it's the joy of the job," he said. "Getting to see the oldest wheelchair user to kill a bear was a good one... we didn't accept that, we don't really accept hunting records."It's a great celebration of the human spirit, I think, and how inventive humans are"."The book still has over 2,000 new records, there's always stuff coming through that we're really excited about," he said."It's the home of Guinness World Records really because it's where the idea started. "The whole thing began on a bird shooting expedition and an argument was had and they couldn't solve it and said 'We need a book of records that can be given to pubs'Mr Glenday said this is the same place whereIrish man Gary O'Keeffe broke the record for the greatest distance covered driving on ice in one week. He decided to undertake the challenge on Lake Baikal as he believed it is was one the"toughest challenges imaginable". "A few of like-minded friends got together and said, 'Lets go to Russia', which seems unlikely now and drive on the biggest, deepest lake in the world," he told the show. "We said sure while we're at it why not build a truck and put a team motorcyclists together and let's make a world record for the fun.""They actually helped us and set a minimum distance of 300 kilometres and framed it within one week because there had to be something that was a challenge," he said.Mr O'Keeffe still holds the record adding that"massive factors" like COVID, climate change and the war in Ukraine may prevent someone else from challenging it.Cora from the Dollyday Committee in County Kerry outlines their record-breaking feat from last year."We had actually broken a record in 2012 the largest gathering of people dressed as nuns."The record that we set is the largest gathering of people dressed as Dolly Parton.""So we ended up with 959 people dressed as Dolly Parton and we're delighted that we're actually in the book," she added. Other records Ireland holds include the most consecutive All-Ireland Hurling Final wins, the largest gathering of people dressed as Dolly Parton and the longest running live TV chat show.Main image: Inventors Shawn Brown and Ruth Amos break world record building giant toothbrush taller than a horse. Image: Guinness World Records
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