The history of Irish whiskey could've been written as a heart-rending Irish ballad. But the word whiskey itself is an Anglicized version of the Gaelic "uisce beatha," meaning "water of life."
Irish monks learned distillery from Arabic perfumers and brought the technique back to Ireland around 700 A.D. The industrious monks then modified this to achieve a drinkable spirit — the water of life.
So, what distinguishes Irish whiskey from, say, Scotch whiskey. Well, most Irish pot-still whiskey is distilled thrice, while most but not all Scotch is distilled twice. Peat is rarely used in the Irish malting process so Irish whiskey has a smoother finish, as opposed to the smoky, more earthy overtones of some Scotches.
Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world with fans including Queen Elizabeth and Tzar Peter the Great of Russia. But then, a long period of decline from the late 18th Century onwards greatly damaged the industry. Although Scotland sustains over a hundred distilleries, Ireland today still has only seven currently operating, four of them operating long enough to have products sufficiently aged for sale on the market as of 2013, and only one of them operating before 1975.
What happened? Well, in the early 20th Century Irish whiskey was the most popular whiskey in the U.S. as well, and between 1920 and 1933, Prohibition and unwillingness of most distillers in Ireland to ship their whiskey to America illegally via gangsters and bootleggers essentially destroyed the export market, and forced many Irish distilleries out of business. Back in Ireland, the Easter Rising, the Irish War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War all made exporting whiskey just a wee bit difficult. Following Irish independence, a series of trade disputes with Britain then meant that Irish whiskey was essentially locked out of markets throughout the Commonwealth.
So, by the 1960s there was only a handful of distilleries left in Ireland. In 1966, they came together under the name of Irish Distillers, pooling their resources. By the mid '70s, there were only two distilleries left in Ireland near Middleton and Bushmills, both owned by Irish distillers.
But this ballad, though Irish, does not have a sad ending. Industry giant Pernod Ricard took over Irish Distillers in 1988, pouring their considerable resources into the market of Irish whiskeys, especially Jameson. Since the early 1990s, Irish whiskey has undergone a major resurgence, and has become the fastest growing spirit in the world for over twenty years now.
So, I lift a glass to you. This is Kate Scuffle for the Celtic Cultural Alliance. Sláinte!
