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IRELAND’S FIRST PURPOSE built distillery for new whiskey begins distilling in Dingle next month, as established drinks entrepreneurs look to mirror the success of the island’s micro breweries.
With Ireland’s three distilleries all owned by American or French drinks giants, entrepreneurs in Derry, Kerry and Louth have or are looking to start selling their own unique whiskeys and blends to capitalise on the growing market for whiskeys worldwide.
“There are around 160 distilleries in Scotland” says Oliver Hughes of the Dingle Distillery in Kerry. “In Ireland we have three and that’s it. They are all owned by huge multinationals.”
He sees huge opportunities to capitalise on a resurgence in interest in Irish whiskey worldwide, with sales of single malt whiskey in the US increasing by 24 per cent to 1.7 million cases last year, surpassing Scotch single malt for the first time.
Ciaran Mulgrew of Niche Drinks in Derry agrees. His company has been making liqueur since the 1980s, but has applied for planning permission for a £15m distilling plant after watching the €73m sale of the Cooley Distillery in Co Louth last year. Jack Teeling, a son of the company’s founder, is now establishing his own brand based on one of Cooley’s whiskeys.
“There are a handful of distilleries here and they are all owned by US or French PLCs” he told TheJournal.ie. “There is nothing small or indigenous. That’s going against the trend that we see in beer, where a lot of craft breweries have sprung up in Ireland.”
Teeling says the same.
25 years ago when the Cooley distillery was set up the industry was in a totally different place. In fact it was dormant. But the Irish climate, while not good for sunning yourself, is ideal for whiskey maturation. It allows for the production of a very smooth whiskey that suits pallets looking for that kind of taste. It also uses Irish water, Irish cereal and Irish expertise, which means it is going to survive globalisation as it has to be made here.
However, Ireland still controls a small amount of the worldwide market. Just 3.5 per cent of the world’s whiskey comes from the island, against 60 per cent from Scotland.
Up until the 1920s, Derry was the largest whiskey producer in the world, making more whiskey than any other city in the world. Watts was the largest single distiller in the world, with Ireland boasting over 80 distilleries according to Brian Townsend in his book, ‘The Lost Distilleries of Ireland’.
Prohibition put an end to much of the trade, with the Scottish industry, coming out on top when the ban on alcohol was lifted in 1933. Scotland distilleries now employ 10,000 people directly and other 35,000 indirectly.
According to Hughes, Ireland leaving the Commonwealth also had a major impact, as India was of the biggest markets in the world.
A co-founder of the Porter House Brewing company, he says there is huge scope to copy the success of the micro brewery trade with distilleries.
“We were at the forefront of craft brewing and in whiskey, we believe there is room for the small man.”
Dingle has begun distilling gin and will start producing whiskey next month. Interested drinkers will have to wait three years to taste a drop though, with a five year variety called Founding Fathers Whiskey sitting in casks a little time longer. However, investors and patient drinkers can get in on the game early, with Dingle selling 500 casks of the five year whiskey for about €6500 each.
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There is nothing more demoralizing than being bullied or intimidated in the workplace.
You want to give 100% to the customer/company and enjoy your job.
But it only takes 1 or 2 sad individuals to destroy any good feelings you have.
It saps your self confidence and ability to give the customer the service they deserve.
It isn’t physical intimidation (these bullies are far too scared to do that) .
It’s the whisper campaigns , doing things they know annoys you, they turn other workers against you and basically make life miserable.
Sad little individuals.
I left a job I truly loved 10 years ago and still regret it.
@Justice Mickey: Same thing happened to me.HR didnt want to know.Ended up having to quit.Found out later he had been asked to leave his previous job for the same thing.Nasty piece of work.
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: I’ve see it happen. Nasty pieces of work, like you, I reported it in writing, & faced the bully nose to nose, he backed down and moved on to other softer touches, & like you most of these people, packed up & moved on. The Employer lost some fantastic people, & another loser is the Employer.
Moral in my storey is, stand up to the B’ast4rds, they cant handle it when someone puts it up to them. I know that shouldn’t be the way, but in life you gotta do what you gotta do?
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne:
So sorry to read that Trish and hopefully you are in a better place mentally and physically.
Happy New year to you.
@Dom Layzell:
HR are totally useless and toothless, I confronted the ring leader and went Nose to Nose and he was scared shitless but it reverted back once he had his sleveen devious buddies behind him.
Then he made sure there would never be another opportunity.
Bullies are nothing but sad little cowards whit zero personalities or social skills.
They think that by belittling someone they are seen as “The big man/woman”.
I would hate to be in their shoes and be know as a pure looser and be the laughing stock.
In most cases these people turn into miserable old and unwanted people that will die alone and nobody will care.
@Justice Mickey: you’re wrong – it’s bad enough being subjected to bullying but what is even worse is when you bring the matter to the attention of your HR Department as advised & HR then proceeds to ignore their own policies and timelines continuously for months/years on end, while you continue to have to work with the person who bullies you…. that is demoralising & that is what currently goes on in some civil/public service jobs
@Justice Mickey: Thank you.I ended up in a job i love with amazing people so he did me a favour in the end!
@Justice Mickey: HR are there to protect the company, not the employees. Don’t listen to anyone in HR trying to tell you otherwise.
Bullying is in every workplace. People with comments, snide remarks, looks, judging, deliberately leaving people out from a conversation or not inviting them to lunch etc. Then these bullies play the victim when a complaint is made, that’s all bullying if you make a person feel uncomfortable. It says so much about the person /people doing it. Some people can make others feel physically sick about going in to work because of the way they are treated and it makes me so mad. But these bullies have other issues you have to remember this.
Quite a misleading headline, at odds with the statistics presented in the body.
11 complaints in 11 months for a force of 14000. Well done to the Gardai. They seem to be well on top of the problem.
Bullying costs lives. It’s incalculable how much decent man and woman hours have been lost to the public, all around the country, through incompetent middle and senior management. Just look at the incompetence of senior management that was exposed through the Maurice McCabe affair. Just look at what came out.
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