The Tradition of Irish Whiskey

The making of whiskey in Ireland is older, in written record, than the making of whisky in Scotland. Distillation was practised in the monasteries of medieval Ireland from at least the twelfth century, brought back by Irish monks from their travels through the Mediterranean world and adapted to the local conditions of grain, water and peat.

The Gaelic phrase uisce beatha — the water of life — is the direct etymological ancestor of the modern English 'whiskey'. Both Ireland and Scotland can claim the phrase; the two traditions have argued for centuries over which can claim the older practice, and neither has entirely won the argument.

In 1608, the Crown granted a distilling licence to Sir Thomas Phillips at Bushmills in County Antrim. It is the oldest surviving distilling licence in the world, and Old Bushmills, now trading continuously from that ground, is one of the most venerable distilleries in operation.

The nineteenth century was the golden age of Irish whiskey. Dublin was, quite literally, the world capital of whiskey production. Its four great distilleries — John Jameson & Son on Bow Street, William Jameson on Marrowbone Lane, John Power & Son on John's Lane, and George Roe & Co on Thomas Street — between them produced more whiskey than the whole of Scotland.

At the peak of the period, the Bow Street Distillery alone was one of the largest producers in the world by volume. Cork, on the south coast, was a second great centre of production, home to the Cork Distilleries Company that would later merge with the Dublin houses. Belfast, Derry and other Irish cities also had substantial distilling operations.

In 1900, Irish whiskey ruled the world. Fifty years later, the industry had almost vanished.

The signature of the great Dublin distilleries was triple distillation. Where the malt whiskies of Scotland were, and remain, distilled twice, the pot still whiskeys of Ireland were passed through the stills three times, producing a smoother, cleaner spirit at a higher initial strength.

It was a matter of philosophy as much as of process. Irish distillers believed that a third distillation produced a whiskey of greater elegance, and the smooth character of triple-distilled Irish whiskey became one of its defining commercial virtues in the export markets of the nineteenth century.

The twentieth century was catastrophic for Irish whiskey. The United States, by far the largest export market, closed almost overnight in January 1920 with the coming of Prohibition. When Prohibition ended in 1933, the American market had reorganised itself around Canadian whisky and around a revived American bourbon industry, and Irish whiskey did not recover its former position.

At the same time, the newly independent Irish Free State fell into a trade war with the United Kingdom that closed the second-largest export market for years at a stretch. The First World War had already imposed rationing and disruption; the Second would do so again. Meanwhile, Scotch whisky continued to advance internationally, and by the 1950s Irish whiskey had lost the great majority of its worldwide standing.

By the middle decades of the twentieth century, the Irish whiskey industry had contracted to a mere handful of surviving houses. Distilleries closed one after another. By 1966, only three companies remained — John Jameson & Son, John Power & Son, and the Cork Distilleries Company — and in that year they merged to form Irish Distillers, an act of consolidation intended to preserve what remained.

In 1975, the newly consolidated company opened a modern distillery at Midleton in County Cork, and gradually transferred all Irish whiskey production there. The original Bow Street Distillery in Dublin ceased production and was preserved as a visitor centre.

The revival of Irish whiskey from the 1980s onwards is one of the more remarkable stories in the modern spirits world. Jameson, in particular, led an international resurgence, and Irish whiskey is once again a significant global category. In the past two decades, dozens of new distilleries have opened across the island — from Waterford and Dingle in the south to Rademon in the north — and the industry now stands at its highest level of activity since the nineteenth century.

Ireland's most distinctive contribution to the world of whisky is the category known as Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, made from a mash of both malted and unmalted barley and distilled in traditional pot stills. It is a uniquely Irish creation, and it survives today at the Midleton Distillery as one of the great heritage categories of world whiskey.

The Bow Street Distillery survived because a handful of houses would not let the tradition end.

Of all the Irish whiskeys, Jameson has done the most to carry the Irish tradition back into the world. From its Dublin origins in 1780 to its modern production at Midleton, it has become the standard-bearer for Irish whiskey internationally and the flagship of the revival.