What Makes Irish Whiskey, Irish?

by Mark McLaughlin

By definition Irish Whiskey must be fermented, distilled and matured on the island of Ireland. But when considering what makes Irish Whiskey, Irish, it may be where the spirit is formed that gives it its intrinsic connection with this land & its people, it’s where the spirit is given life, and there’s nowhere quite like Ireland.

Irish Whiskey has been around for centuries in one form or another, from its earliest records in the Red Book of Ossory from the 1320’s labelled as ‘Aqua Vitae’, or the ‘water of life’, or more accurately translated in Irish to Uisce Beatha. It was Uisce beatha, more commonly referred to as fuisce (pronounced fwish-ka, or whiskey, that became synonymous with life in Ireland throughout the 17^th, 18^th & 19^th centuries in Ireland. Attempts at regulation by the British crown saw the rise of industrial distilling and parliament whiskey, whiskey made under the rule of the Crown, but it also drove rural fuisce production underground, becoming known as Poitín, translated to small pot, but locally referred to, still, as fuisce, as whiskey & poitín were one and the same.

 

You see the legal distilleries of the larger towns & cities had much in common with the illicit poitín makers of rural Ireland. Their spirit in the early days would have been much the same, produced from grain, water & yeast, fermented then distilled a minimum of 2 times to produce spirit of exceptional quality. Where the whiskey distilleries began to mature in large casks for prolonged periods, the poitín distillers would keep their spirit in smaller casks before bottling, easier to move and hide if the law came knocking. But it was not their production methods, similar or different that made Irish Whiskey, Irish, but the people involved.

The distilleries of the towns & cities brought significant employment with them, for the distillers, coopers, maintenance, delivery men, cask fillers & disgorgers, bottlers & bonders. In many cases these distilleries were the reason electricity was brought to the area, and the distilleries gave reason to push technology further & further for the times they lived in. Where the poitín distillers worked together with their local communities to grow & harvest the grain, to cut the turf/peat to malt the grain and heat the stills, and more importantly to toast to new life or to those who passed, to weddings and all celebrations within their families and communities. You see for many in Ireland, distilling, distilleries and the many arts that go into making fine spirits is in their blood.

Nowadays, we see Irish Whiskey going through a renaissance, 40 working distilleries and counting, and the sense of community is growing ever stronger.

Today we have many talented staff working throughout the distilleries of Ireland who all have their own stories to tell, people from many parts of the world, from different ethnicities and backgrounds who all play their role in the continued growth of Irish Whiskey.

We’ve vast communities of Irish Whiskey enthusiasts worldwide spreading the word of Irish Whiskey, many of them Irish, many with Irish roots or heritage, proud to be spreading the word of their native spirit. Though there are many who aren’t Irish, those who’ve found Irish Whiskey by chance or by recommendation, by accident or by persistence from a friend, and those people, now too have a connection to our home, the home of whiskey, Ireland.

What makes Irish Whiskey, Irish, is the people, the sense of community, the welcome, the conversation, the music, the language, the comradery, the stories and the sips. Irish Whiskey thrives because there are those who want it to thrive, to flourish & grow, it’s part of who we are as a nation. Anyone who has been to Ireland will understand, that the Irish people & the Irish land will leave you connected to it forever, you will feel Ireland’s spirit as you grace its wild shores, just as Irish Whiskey does for people all across the world.