ARTHUR will be the name on everybody's lips this week - and so will his beer. Guinness that is.

On September 23, 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease on St James's Gate Brewery in Dublin and the rest is history.

Click here now for amazing offers to Dublin!

His distinctive stout is now one of the biggest selling beers in the world.

In 2009, to celebrate this 250-year success story, Guinness came up with a marketing ploy to rival Coca-Cola's rebranding of Father Christmas.

It declared September 23 Arthur's Day.

This year's celebration takes place on Thursday, September 22 and at 17.59 precisely, the world will toast the great man for his creation.

Millions join in from America to Africa and across Asia. But none more so than in Ireland, where a nationwide music festival boasts 1,500 events and hundreds of artists.

At the centre of this now firmly-established, lipsmacking Guinness love-in is Dublin.

Oh how lucky we are that Kildare-born Arthur chose Dublin for his venture.

For this is one town that knows how to party.

Want incredible offers to Dublin? Click here now...

Not content with filling the streets with merrymakers (Guinness kindly reduces the price of its pint for the day), each year the city follows Thursday's music and booze extravaganza by taking part in the nationwide Culture Night on the Friday. Here Dublin joins the rest of Ireland to show off the country's arty side by holding free events in museums, galleries and historic houses.

It then wraps up on the Sunday with the final day of its Fringe Festival.

My three-day binge on music, literature and performance art - I wasn't only there for the beer - began with me settling in at the very comfortable four-star O'Callaghans Alexander, near the centre, before trying out the equally elegant Maldron Hotel, in Docklands, an area under regeneration.

You could stay at The Clarence, owned by U2's Bono and The Edge, for a mere €1,099 a night. But be warned, the price does not include breakfast.

By contrast, 16th Century Trinity College lets out its student digs for €57 in the holidays.

Wherever you stay, you won't be too far away from the tour buses.

They circle the city stopping at attractions including the busy O'Connell Street shopping area, famed for its Irish crystal and knitwear.

It is also where the 1916 uprising against the Brits started. Or you may decide to visit the infamous Kilmainham Gaol where for many of the rebels the revolt ended - with execution.

For one price you can jump on and off the buses all day taking in the sights.

I hopped off at historic Guinness Storehouse, at St James's Gate, to take the brewery tour, toast Arthur and watch the Stereophonics. They are playing the festival again this year along with Scissor Sisters, Paloma Faith and Calvin Harris.

The tour is the trip's jewel in the crown, or should that be the shamrock on your pint? It covers several floors of the original brewery and begins with a step-by-step guide to how Guinness is made by the master brewer himself.

And you will be taught how to pull the perfect pint. You don't draw a shamrock on it, by the way.

Nor do you ever add blackcurrant. They almost reopened Kilmainham Gaol when someone asked for that in the Gravity Bar. The Bar is on the top of the Storehouse where you end the tour with a free pint and a 360-degree view that takes in the magnificent 82,300-capacity Croke Park stadium, St Patrick's Cathedral and The Spire.

This piece of architecture, a 360ft-tall spike to commemorate the Millennium, is quaintly known as the Stiffy On The Liffey.

Dubliners have a habit of using rhymes to rename all their statues and monuments.

So the legendary fishseller/prostitute Molly Malone, inset left, becomes the Tart With The Cart or the Trollop With The Scallops.

It's all tongue in cheek, because the Dubliners embrace their culture as well as that of other countries.

Places not to miss if you want to wine, dine and be entertained late into the night are the Winding Stair (beware, there is considerably more than one stair) and Harry's Mediterranean Bar.

Both are a stone's throw from Dublin's beating heart - Temple Bar, where each cobbled street oozes history and atmosphere

Every pub boasts an Irish celebrity as a regular. And during the Fringe Festival, that may be true.

This year's event, on until September 25, will be attended by around 150,000 people watching 650 performances in 40 venues.

Even the streets are alive with entertainment and if you throw down a hanky, someone will put on a show.

But that's Dublin for you - everyone's a showman and they don't need an excuse to party.

FactFile

GETTING there: Fly with Ryanair (ryanair.com) to Dublin from £12, one way, or with Aer Lingus from £19.99 (aerlingus.com)

WHERE to stay: Rooms at Maldron Hotel (maldronhotels.com) cost from €59. Rooms at The Alexander Hotel (ocallaghanhotels.com) cost from €79. Accommodation at Trinity House (tcd.ie/accommodation.com) starts from €57 for a single room.
WHERE to eat: A two-course lunch at the Winding Stair (winding-stair.com) costs €19.95. Harry's Bar (harryscafebar.com) offers two courses from €12.
WHAT to see: Hop-on, hop-off Dublin bus tours cost €14.50 and are valid for 24 hours. A Guinness Storehouse family ticket (two adults, four children) costs €32.50 from guinness-storehouse.com