Irishwhiskey is the drink that refused to die, despite being buffeted by the winds of history and pounded by the tides of fashion. Once a whisky colossus that easily outsold its Scottish counterpart, it descended into disfavour and near destruction, before undergoing a triumphant renaissance in the 21st century.
Dublin in the Victorian era was one of the great trading hubs of the British empire, its vast distillery complexes small towns within the city. The big four – John Jameson, William Jameson, John Power and George Roe – exemplified pre-independence Ireland’s domination of the global whisky scene, with nearly 30 distilleries dotted around the country.
Within a century, Dublin’s whiskey plants had been wiped out by a crippling mix of the rise of blended Scotch, political and macroeconomic factors, and an attitude of arrogant complacency on the part of its distillers. In 1976, the
