So, Thursday 24th September was dubbed Arthur's Day by Guinness and drinks giant Diageo. The Guinness brewery in Dublin was opened 250 years ago, and in a fantastic global marketing campaign the Guinness marketeers encouraged us to raise a glass of the black stuff at exactly 17:59 hrs in honour of the founder Arthur Guinness himself. By all accounts it seems to have been very successful - pictures in the press showing streets around the country thronged with people raising a glass of the black stuff; even my eight year old son asking me was I going out to celebrate Arthur's day! (Full disclosure: I have not been in a pub to have an alcoholic drink in over 18 months, such is my current lifestyle!) I would have very much liked a Guinness on Thursday, especially when my wife told me she had intened to bring me home some Guinness cans (but didn't).

However, late on Thursday evening I picked up some Twitter traffic live from Temple Bar, and the reports of broken glass blanketing the streets was an off-putting image. On Friday morning, I read John Waters' article in the Irish Times (read it here) reminding us that binge drinking (definition: drinkling with the primary purpose of achieving intoxication) in Ireland is one of the highest rates in Europe, and that after all Guinness (and other beers etc) is a "liquid drug, a mind-altering concoction". More poignantly, Waters points out that more than 100 Irish people die every month as a direct result of alcohol. That is a hell of a lot more than have died from swine flu.

I'm not trying to put a downer on it. I like Guiness, I like drinking (in moderation, but have been guilty of excess in the past I do admit), I am proud to be Irish and proud of Irish culture and heritage, but this article did strike a chord, just as much as the tweet from Temple Bar which conjured up an image of dirty drunken streets full of violence and obscenity.

The view is not looking so good today.

I have always loved the first of September, and this year was no different despite being out of work. Well, to be accurate I have been made redundant as a senior IT manager from a leading renewables company, and I am enjoying the time off, and the challenge of looking for a new job. I am not sure what that new job is going to be - a fulltime role in a company doing what I do well and enjoy, or will it be more of a consultancy role working for myself, and for a variety of clients on a contract and reward basis. The time off has been great, having been able to spend the month of August with the family, doing holiday stuff and ducking and diving out of the rain that is no doubt the result of climate change. Back to school for some of the kids was quite early this year with the primary school going back on the 27th August, and the secondary school at the beginning of this week. But never mind the actual day of the week, it’s the 1st of September that is the date of relevance – it marks the end of the summer holiday season – back to school; the end of the summer weather – morning’s are crisper, dewing affairs; it’s the start of something fresh – it’s a throwback to my school days when the 1st of September brings those butterflies-in-the­-stomach in anticipation of new times, and change, and unknowns, etc.

So this 1st of September was good – an early walk before the dawn broke on a quintessential September morning reminding me of the poetry I learned as a schoolboy a quarter of a century ago (Another September, Thomas Kinsella and On An Apple-Ripe September Morning, Patrick Kavanagh). Just as I was in the last 10 meters of the walk the dawn started to break behind me – the sun was not yet visible but peering over the horizon was a few crucial rays to illuminate the school building in front of me. What an poignant combination: the September rays bouncing off the school building, shining light on the house of learning of sagacious babes! (for clarity: sagacious babes means wise little children - not what you think I was trying to say is it!?!?)

It reminded me that I wrote a blog exactly four years ago about the same topic (I’ve moved off Wordpress onto Google’s Blogger) , and followed it up with another a few days later after I started my job in Airtricity. It’s interesting what I wrote about the company that hired me back then, and fired me last month: “But the single thing that differentiates this job from my last is that no matter who you pass on the stairs or in the corridors they say hello, rather than staring past you blankly, or even forcing not to make eye-contact”. Well, by the time I left last month, or mid-July when you take the month’s gardening leave into account, Airtricity’s culture had moved to "blank stares" and "avoiding eye-contact". A consequence of having been bought by a UK FTSE 30 plc, no doubt. Four years ago, I said in that blog that there is the making of a thesis in there, and I think the topic is truly a candidate for just that in the MSc in Organisational Behaviour that I am about to embark on.

On an apple-ripe September morning/Through the mist-chill fields I went/With a pitch-fork on my shoulder/Less for use than for devilment. (from On An Apple-Ripe September Morning, Patrick Kavanagh).