Sir, – Further to the letter by Brian Cullen quoting the word "stillion" (October 15th), my memory of this word was of a cradle on which the beer barrel was placed horizontally behind the bar counter.
This was when beer was extracted from the barrel by vacuum, not like today’s method which uses compression.
As the keg emptied, it could be angled on the stillion to ensure delivery to the beer tap. The barmen would know from experience when the keg needed to be adjusted for a continuous flow of Arthur’s finest.
If memory serves me correctly, the “iron lung”, as the compressed gas canister method was known, replaced the vacuum method in the late 1960s. – Yours, etc,
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LIAM CLARKE,
Dublin 16.