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Blackcurrant in Guinness 'a cardinal sin', says MP

Robbie Meredith
BBC NI education and arts correspondent
Getty Images A close-up, side-on view of a woman sipping a pint of guinness. She has shoulder-length blonde hair and is holding the pint in her right hand, holding it to her mouth as she takes the first sip.Getty Images
Guinness has risen in popularity in Great Britain

A Labour MP has recalled the moment she was almost thrown out of an Irish pub for requesting blackcurrant cordial with a Guinness.

"It was like a cardinal sin," Dawn Butler told the Commons during a debate on St Patrick's Day and Northern Irish affairs.

Butler said that she was proud to represent "the largest Irish constituency in the whole of the UK" in Brent East.

"Every year I do ensure that I have a Guinness, no matter where I am," she added.

"I don't particularly like Guinness to be honest."

@DawnButlerBrent A woman with long braided hair, holding a half-pint glass of Guinness, she is smiling and wearing a white coat There is a person behind her, however their face has been covered with a smiling face emoji, in sunglasses, to protect their identity. @DawnButlerBrent
Dawn Butler shared a photo of her with a pint of stout on St Patrick's Day

Labour MP Adam Jogee praised the contribution of the island of Ireland to the "great British pub".

"From Ballybeen to Golder's Green and everywhere in between, who doesn't like a good pint?," he said.

Jogee said the pub influence stretched "from Ballycastle to Bletchley, Coalisland to Camden, Fermanagh to Falkirk", as well as from Portballintrae to Pembrokeshire.

"The approach and the culture has deeply influenced our pubs and we are all the better for it," he added.

'Never mess' with an Irish woman

Jogee said that "for nations across the globe St Patrick's Day is a day of celebration, acknowledgement and togetherness".

He said on St Patrick's Day the world could be described in two ways: "Those who are Irish and Northern Irish and those who wished they were."

He said he was proud of his own family's roots in Northern Ireland.

"My late grandmother's father was of good solid County Down stock," he said.

He went on to acknowledge the "very strong women from both unionist and nationalist traditions" who he said had shown "real leadership," including the SDLP MP Claire Hanna, Baroness Ritchie, Lady Hermon and the former First Minister Baroness Foster.

"I know that my mother-in-law, if she were watching and she may be, would be very clear that you should never mess with a woman from anywhere on the island of Ireland," Jogee said.

He also praised "great wordsmiths" from Northern Ireland including the poet Seamus Heaney, novelist Anna Burns and musician Van Morrison.

Jogee said that the debate was not about the constitution of Northern Ireland, but about the close relationship between Britain and the island of Ireland.

St Patrick's Day holiday?

Conservative MP Andrew Rossindell said he would "strongly submit that St Patrick's Day should be a national bank holiday alongside all the other feast days of our kingdom's patron saints".

"We must do more to mark St Patrick's Day on the mainland," he later said.

Rossindell also called for the restoration of the Royal Order of St Patrick by the King.

Established in 1783, it was a specific knighthood reserved for those from Ireland.

Rossindell also suggested the Republic of Ireland should take "our deep neighbourly relations to the next level" and re-join the Commonwealth.

The MP for Romford said the Republic "would do well to emulate countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand" and take its "rightful" place in the international association.