Ireland ‘punches above its weight’ when it comes to breaking records, the head of the Guinness World Records has said.
The book, which originated in County Wexford, is marking 70 years of record-breaking feats today.
Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday told Lunchtime Live there are a lot of attempts which don’t make it.
“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 [else] they’re just not records.
“We had ‘Dog with the fewest legs’ – that’s just weird, we don’t want that.”
Mr Glenday said the book actually has a section looking at some of the more interesting applications.
“For me one of the strangest was the longest drawing of an evil train,” he said.
“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.
“They said this was the longest drawing of an evil train – and that’s just too random even for us”.
‘The joy of the job’
Mr Glenday said he considers the book as a celebration of human spirit.
“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.
“The oldest competitor at a mouse calling competition [was another example].
“It’s a great celebration of the human spirit, I think, and how inventive humans are”.
‘Where the idea started’
Mr Glenday said they love when great ideas that turn into records.
“The book still has over 2,000 new records, there’s always stuff coming through that we’re really excited about,” he said.
“I think Ireland per capita really does punch above its weight.
“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’
“That’s how it all started in Castlebridge in County Wexford”.
Mr Glenday said this is the same place where the largest ensemble of tin whistles was made.
Irish 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.”
Mr O’Keeffe said while it’s easy to apply there are strict rules in place.
“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.
“We wound up doing 798.6 kilometres on frozen water on one lake within seven days.”
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.
Image: Guinness World RecordsCora from the Dollyday Committee in County Kerry outlines their record-breaking feat from last year.
“Dollyday was a fundraiser and it was also our Guinness World Record challenge,” she said.
“We had actually broken a record in 2012 [for] the largest gathering of people dressed as nuns.
“This time we decided we’d try to set a record.
“The record that we set is the largest gathering of people dressed as Dolly Parton.”
Cora said they initially had 1,137 but some were disqualified for not being in the correct outfits.
“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.
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