Irish whiskey is whiskey made on the island of Ireland. The word 'whiskey' comes from the Irish uisce beatha, meaning water of life. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world, though a long period of decline from the late 19th century onwards greatly damaged the industry, so much so that although Ireland boasted at least 28 distilleries in the 1890s, by 1966 this number had fallen to just two, and by 1972 the remaining distilleries, Bushmills Distillery and Old Midleton Distillery, were owned by just one company, Irish Distillers.
Three Irish whiskeys: Knappogue Castle, Jameson, and Bushmills
Erskine Nicol – A Nip Against the Cold – An Irishman pouring whiskey 1869. Part of Erskine Nicol Irish collection, painting of Irish life.
The Old Midleton Distillery, built in 1825, hosts a mammoth 31,618 gallon Pot still, so big that the still room needed to be built around it. Although no longer in use, it remains in place inside the old distillery building.
Jameson's Bow Street distillery pictured in Alfred Barnard's 1887 report on the distilleries of Britain and Ireland
A pot still is a type of distillation apparatus or still used to distill liquors such as whisky or brandy. In modern (post-1850s) practice, they are not used to produce rectified spirit, because they do not separate congeners from ethanol as effectively as other distillation methods. Pot stills operate on a batch distillation basis. Traditionally constructed from copper, pot stills are made in a range of shapes and sizes depending on the quantity and style of spirit desired.
Pot stills at the Lagavulin Distillery
Historical whiskey pot still at the Jameson Midleton distillery in Cork, Ireland
A spirit safe (i.e. padlocked apparatus at the end of the pot still enabling the distiller to cut off the "heads" and "tails" of distillation; it is padlocked for excise accounting reasons)