by Peter White

As whiskey fans we're fortunate to have a large number of whiskey distilleries and independent bottlers plying their trade here in Ireland but it wasn’t always so. Before there was an explosion in interest in Irish whiskey and whiskey societies, there were only a few diehard people working hard to further the interest and growth in an Irish invention.

Bernard Walsh, one half of the husband and wife team that founded Walsh Whiskey, is one of those people. Affable, charming and extremely hardworking, together with his wife Rosemary, they ploughed a lonely furrow for a long time gradually pulling a team together which is still together to this day and which has succeeded in building their brands; Writers’ Tears and The Irishman into the renowned worldwide names that they now are.

I'm lucky to have known Bernard for many years and  have long wanted to sit down and hear the story of the building of these iconic brands and what challenges he faced along the way.