Irish whiskey has had a long and chequered history. As far back as the 1770’s there were over 1200 distilleries on the Emerald Isle, however the vast majority had no licence.
By the 1820’s the government had introduced so many taxes on whiskey that there were only 20 legal distilleries but there were still a large amount of illicit stills in operation producing what we know as Poitin.
Tax laws were later relaxed and by 1830 the number of Irish distilleries had swelled to 90.
Unfortunately, with mass production comes mass consumption and the resulting temperance movement once again brought the whiskey industry to its knees with 5 million people vowing to abstain from drinking!
Ireland never fully recovered from this, and when legendary whiskey writer Alfred Barnard visited Ireland in 1886 there were only 28 distilleries in production.
Then the good times rolled, for a short while anyway. Irish Whiskey, in particular, Dublin whiskey, had gained a reputation as the finest whiskey in the world, so much so that Scottish Distillers Company opened up a distillery in Dublin.
But it didn't last long after the 1916 Easter Rising, followed the war of independence and then the Civil war. Between 1919-1923 sales of whiskey plummeted, Ireland could no longer rely on exports to the British Empire and when prohibition took hold in America most distilleries found themselves with little or no foreign market.
When prohibition finally ended in 1933, the American palate had acquired a taste for bootlegged Scotch and so allowed Scotch whisky to blaze a trail throughout North America and also the British Empire.
Irish distilleries were falling like houses of cards and this continued until the 1960’s when Powers, Jameson and Cork Distillers merged in an effort to stop the decline. A new distillery was constructed behind the Old Midleton Distillery in County Cork. This new company known as Irish Distillers went on to buy Bushmills Distillery giving them a monopoly on Irish Whiskey. Then in 1987 new life was given to the industry, when John Teeling opened the Cooley Distillery. The results have been amazing, fantastic award winning whiskey that has elevated them to World Distiller of the Year. Along with Diageo's acquisition of Bushmills in 2004 and the recent re-opening of the Lockes Distillery in Kilbeggan, Irish Whiskey is once again on the rise. With plans for several more distilleries it won’t be long before Irish Whiskey is back on top of the ladder alongside Scotch.