Still With Us: Formative Imperatives in the History of Material Irish Whiskey, c. 1324-1980
Whiskey is regularly discussed as a drink entwined with Irish history and society. That history, however, has usually been read as the immaterial social history of a single material commodity. It does not consider the varied, often dissimilar beverages that have been consumed as ‘whiskey’ or as ‘uisce beatha’. Even within the more recent history of the Irish whiskey industry, most of the grain recipes of Ireland’s closed distilleries have largely passed out of trade memory. This thesis examines the evolution from c.1324 to 1980 of amorphous whiskeys, indebted to their historical moments and materially responsive to their agricultural, societal, legislative, and technological surroundings. Lastly, it proposes that lost materials and practices from the past may be drawn upon to drive innovation in contemporary Irish distilling and it investigates the use of historical Irish pot still whiskey mash bills in a contemporary distillery setting. Using an historiographical approach, the research drew upon distillery day books, excise reports, government sessions, trade paraphernalia, private letters and other period sources, examined against an integrated literature review. The research unearthed diverse recipes and processes, stretching from Irish distilling’s first extant records up to the Irish pot still whiskeys of the very recent past. The subject is discussed across five chapters. The first chapter investigates the origins and early development of Irish distilling and its first attested beverages. The second chapter explores the overlapping development of Ireland’s commercial distilling industry and of material ‘whiskey’ as a product. The third chapter examines the divergence between the material beverages of the licit, industrialised whiskey industry and the illicit poitín distillers of the nineteenth century. The fourth chapter examines the evolution of ‘Irish pure pot still whiskey’ as a material beverage identity among nineteenth and twentieth-century Irish distillers. This chapter also explores the various grain recipes, or ‘mash bills’, employed to make Irish ‘pure pot still whiskey’ and compares them against the processes and materials of their column still competitors. The final chapter discusses the relevance of these old pot still mash bills to contemporary Irish distilling innovation and recent legislation. It outlines a practical experiment undertaken with Boann Distillery in Drogheda to investigate the use of lost Irish pot still mash bills in a contemporary distillery. Combining historical survey with practical experiment, this thesis both offers a significantly expanded history of Irish distilling and examines how that material heritage might inform the modern beverage’s organoleptic possibilities. It
