A Dark Cloud Over Ireland (Let’s Talk Irish Whiskey, Part 2) BY SEAN KINCAID Welcome back to the second of the four part series. If you missed part 1, you can find it here.
In this edition we take a look at the reasons why Irish whiskey went from being on top of the world to its near extinction in a matter of a few decades. I will highlight the reasons for the decline and what saved the fabulous spirit then close out with a brief look at how distilleries on the Emerald Isle are not only going through an amazing resurrection but renaissance. In 2024, it’s hard to believe the Irish whiskey industry has been through such a drastic swing. To properly understand the series of unfortunate events that led to its near decimation we start our quick history lesson sometime before Irish whiskey was the 19th century powerhouse. Some dispute that its origins date back to the 12th century when Irish monks brought distillation to Ireland in the form of uisce beatha, “water of life”. It was first recorded in the writings of the Annals of Clonmacnoise (1405) predating
even fill casks for merchants, publicans and inn keepers who would then create their own house style by maturing and blending to sell at their own establishments. As the 20th century was rung in, Irish whisky production was at an all time high of 108 million litres/year- the equivalent of 154.3 million bottles. 1 Change is inevitable and in the case of Irish whiskey it was an invention that caused a subtle dent (pardon the pun). In 1830, Aeneas Coffey patented his column still (AKA Coffey,
Continuous or Patent still) which introduced huge advantages in energy and labour costs as well as minimized distillery downtime. The Irish Distillers refused to adopt this style claiming the product was vastly inferior to the more classic Pot Still spirit they were accustomed to making and the ironic and fateful twist is that Scottish distilleries went all in! They were almost immediately out-producing their Irish counterparts in larger quantities and at a cheaper cost.
any Scottish recorded history by nearly a century. A few hundred years later and the introduction of a few laws stopped most of the estimated 1700 illicit producing stills but by time Alfred Barnard visited Ireland and published his book in 1887, there were 28 legally licensed distilleries selling their whiskies worldwide. Not only did
The first real major blow were the 1919 Irish War of Independence and the Civil War of 1922 which resulted in a long economic war with Great Britain that immediately cut off its key exporting markets to all Commonwealth
Irish whiskey have a better reputation than Scotch it also held the top spot for global sales in spirits. Some of the larger distilleries had their own brand name bottlings, would
1 Irish Times – Distillers in high spirits as the whiskey sector enters a golden era by Barry O’Halloran, Nov 8/13
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the whisky explorer magazine
WINTER 2024
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