DISTILLING IRELAND

The story of Irish whiskey is worthy of any of the country's renowned novelists, containing glory, complacency, decline and death. But in a surprise plot twist it's back, with innovation, quality and confidence

- RICHARD WOODARD

Irish whiskey 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 stills at Powers in John’s Lane fell silent, leaving the island of Ireland with only three operational whiskey distilleries: New Midleton in County Cork and, in Northern Ireland, Bushmills and Coleraine (which closed two years later).

DUBLIN REVIVAL

Jack Teeling was born just as Dublin whiskey died, in 1976. Whiskey is a thread running through his family history, from 1782, when Walter Teeling established a small distillery in Marrowbone Lane, Dublin, to 1989 when Jack’s father John opened the Cooley distillery in a disused potato alcohol plant in County Louth, to the north of Dublin.

Cooley was no overnight success – it took more than a decade to turn a profit – but in time the Teelings’ thoughts turned to the revival of whiskey-making in Dublin. After Cooley was sold [to Beam Inc, as it was at the time],