(Reprinted from Harman Murtagh (ed.), Irish Midland Studies: Essays in honour of N. W. English, Athlone 1980, pp 213-228. Copyright reserved for private use only.)

The importance of distilling and its associated industries, brewing and milling, in. the nineteenth century Irish economy has been generally recognised by historians. However, while the Irish distilling industry has been the subject of a detailed study by E. B. McGuire, and more recently, an interesting essay by R. B. Weir, few studies of the industry at regional or local level have appeared.¹ A considerable amount of manuscript material donated by Irish distilling firms is now available in public repositories, thus making it possible to repair this deficiency. This essay is concerned with the development of the industry in Offaly and looks, in particular, at the establishment of a large distillery at Banagher in the 1870s and the progress of the sole surviving distillery in Offaly in the post-1900 period located at Tullamore.

Part 1
DECLINE OF A COTTAGE INDUSTRY,
1780-1823.

Progress in the Irish distilling industry has been of a cyclical nature with periods of expansion followed by contraction. The industry was entering a contractive phase when useful information first becomes available on it in the early 1780s. In 1780 there were no less than 1,228 distilleries in Ireland, but the size of still and output were small.² The passing of an act in 1779 attempting to limit the extent of evasion of the spirit duty led to a massive reduction in the number of distilleries — a decline which was not arrested until the repeal of the act in 1823. Between 1780 and 1823 the number of distilleries fell from 1,228 to forty.³ In Offaly the decline was equally severe, falling from thirty-two in 1781-82 to five in 1796, two in 1818 and rising to three in 1822.⁴

The Offaly distilleries at work in the early 1780s were located in towns and villages about the county, mostly towards the centre and west. The Clara district had seven, while the largest towns, Birr and Tullamore, whose populations were almost certainly less than 3,000 in either centre, had four and two, respectively.¹ The Clara district was the centre of one of the few industries in the county, linen manufacture, and the increased spending power of the population may perhaps explain the relatively large number of distilleries situated in that area. Almost all the stills in the county were small, with three-quarters of the stills in the 200-300 gallons category. The largest still, that at Kilcomin about five miles south of Birr, was 740 gallons in size. By 1796 the number of distilleries in Offaly had fallen to five, one in each of the principal towns — Birr, Tullamore, Daingean, Banagher and Edenderry. None of the five had stills larger than 525 gallons.⁶ Neither the size of still nor the number of stills being operated had changed by 1802, but distilleries at Daingean and Edenderry had closed while two had opened at Kilcomin.⁷ Coote, in his statistical survey of the county in 1801 describes the Kilcomin distilleries as very extensive and the chief buyers of oats and barley in Clonlisk barony.⁸ In his view, demand for spirits was declining throughout the county while beer and strong ale were being used as substitutes, supplied by breweries at Banagher, Birr, Tullamore and Mountmellick. Coote noted that at Tullamore two breweries were in course of erection.⁹ By 1818 only two distilleries were being operated in the county, both located at Birr and 101 gallons in size.¹⁰ Probably the large military barracks near Birr, established in 1809, acted as a stimulus to consumption.

The still licence duty system introduced in 1780 was a serious setback to the industry, but initially the strongest in the industry came to grips with it. According to McGuire, by 1790 Irish distillers were producing more and had secured two-thirds of the domestic market. In the post-1800 period exports grew and competition from other spirits, mainly rum, fell away.¹¹ In the early stages the surviving Irish distillers succeeded in achieving an output greater than that imputed to them by excise, but in time the authorities caught up with even the most ingenious distillers. The system encouraged economic inefficiency. The ratio of labour to capital increased because distillers found that smaller distilleries were more suited to rapid working. Between 1780 and 1822 excise duty was assessed on the basis of the number of charges put through the stills and distillers found it more advantageous to work with smaller stills. In 1822 of the forty stills licensed eighteen did not exceed 101 gallons in size while the 500-gallon still was the most favoured.¹² The trend towards reduction in size of still and increase in labour input can be seen at the Birch distillery, Roscrea, where the size of still was 1,769 gallons in 1807, but fell to 306 gallons in 1818 and 101 in 1822.¹³

Footnotes

1. E. B. McGuire, Irish whiskey: a history of distilling, the spirit trade and excise controls in Ireland (Dublin, 1973); R. B. Weir, ‘The patent still distillers and the role of competition’ in L. M. Cullen and T. C. Smout (eds.), Comparative aspects of Scottish and Irish economic and social history, 1600-1900 (Edinburgh, 1977), pp 129-144; John Holmes, ‘Monasterevan distillery’ in Kildare Arch. Soc. Jn., xiv (1969), pp 480-7.
2. McGuire, op. cit., p.128.
3. Ibid., p.246.
4. Commons’ Jn. Ire., x, Pt. 2, app. dxxiii and xvi. app. ccclxxiv-ccclxxv; Samuel Morewood, Inventions and customs in the use of inebriating liquors (London, 1824), pp 543-4; Appendix to the fifth report of the commissioners of inquiry into the collection and management of the revenue arising in Ireland, p.117, H.C. 1823 (405), vii.
5. Commons’ jn. Ire., x. pt. 2, app. dxxiii.
6. Ibid., xvi, app. ccclxxiv-ccclxxv.
7. Appendix to fifth report . . . Ire.. p 116.
8. Sir Charles Coote. General view of the agriculture and manufactures of the King’s county with observations on the means of their improvement (Dublin, 1801). pp 44. 46.
9. Ibid., pp 57. 89. 113, 151. 177.
10. Morewood, Inventions and customs, pp 543-4.
11. McGuire, Irish whiskey, pp 148, 151.
12. Ibid., p.167.
13. Ibid., p.169.

A Famous Irish Distillery

TRADITION gives Tullamore an existence in the early years of the Christian era. There is the story of Cahir Mhor, Irish Chieftain from A.D. 120 to 123, who was said to have thirty sons, the eldest being called Ros Failghe-Ros of the Rings. Ros's descendants formed the clan of Hy Failghe, who occupied a large tract of country in the Midlands. The tribal name exists today in the name of the county-Offaly.

Captain J. Williams, M.C
(Former Chairman B. Daly and Co., Ltd.)

Nestling in the valley, under the heathery crest of the Slieve Bloom mountains, the clan had their meeting place-the great assembly, Tullach Mhor. Nowadays we call it Tullamore. It is the county capital, a prosperous market town for a rich grain-growing district. It is noted, above all, as the seat of a large Whiskey manufacturing industry-Bernard Daly's Distillery, widely known now as The Tullamore Distillery.

UISGE BEATHA

Whiskey making in the Irish Midlands dates back to the dim Celtic twilight. A very simple process it was, too, in those days. The field of grain lay ripening in the sun. It was cut and harvested, and a sheaf offered in thanksgiving. Then flailed and winnowed, until the ears remained in a heap of pure gold the bread of life.

The grain was ground in a stone quern, and placed in a barrel of warm water to ferment. The fermented liquor was boiled in a pot, and as the steam came off it was condensed by means of a pipe laid in the cold water of the hill stream. And lo and behold! The crystal-clear distillate-Uisge Beatha. The ears of the barley sheaf, the bread of life, had been transformed into the magic distilled essence-the water of life.

TULLAMORE WHISKEY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

The Offaly Whiskey in the Middle Ages was drunk largely for medicinal purposes; it was regarded as a "sovereigne remedie" for all ailments. Queen Elizabeth, I we are told, had a liking for it, and used to get an occasional sample of a "caske of usquebaugh". And a substantial duty-free sample it was too! Hollinshed, writing in 1577 on this ancient beverage, says: "It sloweth age, it strengtheneth youth, it helpeth digestion, it cutteth flegme, it relisheth the harte, it lighteneth the mynd, it quickeneth the spirits, it cureth the hydropsie, it repelleth gravel . . . and trulie it is a sovereigne liquor if it be orderlie taken".

Mr. Daniel E. Williams, who worked for nearly sixty years in the distillery. Father of Capt. J. Williams

The Whiskey of those days was quite a different beverage from the Whiskey now made at Daly's Distillery. It was treble-distilled, and well laced with fruitjuices, heather blooms, and herb infusions. It was what we now term a Liqueur. The Celtic Missioners carried the recipes for these Liqueurs to the Continent and they were lost to the Irish. But now, one has come back, the well-known Liqueur, Irish Mist. The very old Whiskey on which Irish Mist is based is made at the Tullamore Distillery for its associate company-The Irish Mist Liqueur Co., Ltd.-and Irish Mist has already acquired a world-wide fame, with a particularly wide distribution in the United States.

TULLAMORE DISTILLERY FOUNDED 1829

The present distillery, situated in the heart of the town, on the banks of the river Clodiagh, was founded by a famed distiller, Michael Molloy, as far back as 1829. Soon the good name of his product spread through the country, and with a bottle of Whiskey at that time costing only a few shillings, a prosperous trade quickly grew up. On Mr. Molloy's death in 1857 the property passed into the hands of his nephew, Bernard Daly, and in 1887 Mr. Daly's son, Captain Bernard Daly, took charge of the distillery.

Captain Daly was a well-known sporting character in his day. He was Master of Hounds in the county and an international polo player. He was a prominent owner of racehorses, one of which won the Irish Oaks. It is said that he, and one of the distillery officials, by name Daniel E. Williams, had their shirts on it! And here we come to an important change in the management of the distillery, a change which was responsible for the remarkable development of this great Whiskey concern and the effect of which is felt even to this day. Captain Daly, with his various sporting activities had little time to devote to the distillery. Being a good judge of men, he saw at once that Daniel E. Williams, who had worked in the distillery since he was 15 years of age, was the man to be placed in charge.

Mr. Desmond J. Williams
(Director - D.E. Williams, Ltd., and the Irish Mist Liqueur Co., Ltd.)

So he promoted him from engineer to general manager of the distillery. This might well have been the origin of the well-known slogan "Give every man his Dew".

THE WILLIAMS FAMILY

Mr. Daniel Williams was an outstanding personality. Energetic and enterprising, he set out at once to enlarge the premises, and made substantial additions and improvements to the distillery and plant. Whiskey stocks were increased, and an extensive trade was built up both in the home and in the various foreign markets. This remarkable man carried on work in the distillery for nearly 60 years, and was still active at the time of his death in 1921. He was a noted benefactor of the poor, and his passing was mourned by all. The management was then taken over by his son, Captain John Williams, who had entered the distillery in 1918. Captain J. Williams served in the British Army in the first world war and was awarded the Military Cross. His son, Shaun, was killed whilst serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in the Second World War.

Meanwhile, in 1903, the distillery had been formed into a company, as B. Daly and Co., Ltd., portion of the shares being held by Captain Daly and the remainder by the Williams family. In 1931 Captain Daly resigned as director of the board and the Williams family acquired all the shares in the company.

The present directors of the company are: Captain John Williams, former chairman; Mr. Daniel G. Williams, who entered the firm in 1938-present chairman of the board; and Mr. Richard J. Williams, who entered in 1942, and Mr. Daniel F. Williams (son of Capt. J. Williams) who entered in 1960.

DISTILLERY PREMISES

The distillery premises cover an area of about 12 acres. The granaries hold 65,000 barrels of grain - all purchased from the local farmers. There are capacious malting floors, a feature of the distillery being the old-style pagoda-like kiln for the drying of the malt. The grinding of the grain into meal is done as of old, by means of a water wheel and grinding stones this is said to make the best "mash".

Mr. Richard J. Williams
(Director - B. Daly and Co., Ltd., and D.E. Williams, Ltd.)

In the brewing room are two mash tuns, each with a capacity of 15,000 gallons. Close by are four hot water tanks, capable of holding 8,000 gallons each, the water temperatures being controlled by steam coils. The wash backs are of cedar wood, and hold 15,000 gallons each.

The show piece of the distillery is the still house with its three shining copper pot stills. Flat-bottomed with tall tapering still heads, a pipe leads on to the worm, a long spiral copper tube in a cold water vat or worm tub. While the illicit still in the bog holds less than half a dozen gallons, the largest of these has a capacity of 18,000 gallons, and each of the others 10,000 gallons. Beside the wash still is the wash charger, a east iron vessel with a content of 18,000 gallons.

The extensive warehouses contain many hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of dutiable Whiskey. The distillery is capable of turning out half a million gallons a year.

MAKING TULLAMORE WHISKEY

And now a word on the making of the Whiskey. The harvesting and collecting of the grain in Tullamore, like vintage time in French villages, is one of great activity, aye and rejoicing. For the manufacture of the "Dew" is one of the town's largest industries. Many extra hands are taken on during the working season, and all are concerned in the magic transformation of the ears of the barley sheaf into the finished Whiskey in the cask. And once the season starts the distillery works day and night. The best Whiskey, it is said, runs in the dim darkness of the night!

Mr. Daniel G. Williams
(Chairman - B. Daly and Co., Ltd.)

In making Tullamore Whiskey, unmalted grains barley, wheat, oats and rye - are used along with malt in the "mash". For some years, however, the firm has also made an all-malt brew, to blend with their grain Whiskey for the export market.

The grain is brought in to the firm's corn stores straight from the farms. It is first screened. Mechanical separators get busy with it and all the foreign matter from the corn fields goes one way through the shivering sieves, leaving the grain perfectly clean. The myriad grains are now in for a terribJe time. Great baths of water, known as "steeps", are prepared for them. After this compulsory bath of two or three days, the water-sodden grains are spread out on the concrete malt floors. Maltmen scatter them about in showers with rhythmical sweeps of their wooden shovels, or shiels, and after sprouting for eight days they are dried in the kilns. The all-powerful malt is then ground into fine meal; the real job of Whiskey making now begins.

MASHING AND FERMENTING THE GRAIN

Two gigantic mash tuns are ready to receive the grist. Hot water from the tanks is poured in, and mechanically-operated rakes whirl round and mix the mash thoroughly. For some two hours the mash lies in a communion that gives birth to an important issue. The solid albuminous body in the malt, called diastase, has converted the starch in the grain into sugar. The cloudy insipid gruel in the mash tun has become a semitransparent sweet liquid.

The taps at the bottom of the tun are now turned on to allow the liquor to drain to the underback, whence it is pumped through the refrigerating plant to the wash backs. The grains are re-mashed three or four times before emptying the tun. The exhausted grains, or "draft"', are taken away each day in farm carts for cattle feeding. Fresh mashes are made every eight hours during the brewing period.

The Mill Wheel which grinds the corn for distilling - over 100 years old.

And now into the wash backs enters the mysterious yeast to set the whole in a ferment, a few hundredweights to each back. Down goes the lid very carefully. Innocently enough the trouble starts, by sending up bubbles that plop softly. Soon a frothy head forms and rises to the top of the vessel. Within half an hour a vigorous fermentation takes place; the backs rock and roar, with the automatic switches going at full speed. For two to three days the ferment rages, and then subsides the alcohol, Whiskey in embryo, is born. The yeast is dead, and sinks to the bottom. The wash is ready for the still.

DISTILLING IN POT STILLS

The wash still is charged, fire belches underneath, and the liquor comes to the boil. The vapour rises, travels along the "lyne" arm of the still to the worm, where it is condensed and flows into the "safe". This is a glass-sided structure, holding test tubes, and other mystic paraphernalia of the still man. From the safe the Spirit cascades with the music of a mountain stream into a large oak receiver.

This is distilled Spirits - but is it Whiskey? Not on your life. Back it goes for re-distillation and again a third time. Now we are coming to the baby Whiskey- but not quite yet. The first run, or foreshot, is a very strong Spirit, too heavily charged with oils to mature into a good Whiskey. Very carefully the still man, with his sampling beads, keeps testing the "run" until the Spirit, at the proper strength, shows clear in the glass.

This is now the "real stuff"- he switches the flow into the Spirit receiver. Towards the end the Spirits gradually weaken in strength and become impure, so back it goes for re-distilling. And this complicated sequence from receiver to still and back again goes on day and night during the distilling period, until eventually the pure Whiskey, collected in the receiver, is heavily padlocked by the Excise-man. He even secretes bits of paper, dated and signed, in the inner bosom of the locks, so carefully does he guard the precious liquid. Bank notes or bullion could not be watched over with greater care.

Laboratory Assistant at work in Tullamore Distillery.

This new Spirit is not yet suitable for drinking. Seven long years at least must pass before it matures -seven days of man's tine and seven years of its own. Even a longer period must elapse before it is considered ripe for blending as "Tullamore Dew".

AGEING THE WHISKEY

Let us now take you over to the Spirit store with its enormous vat of new Whiskey - a sight surely for the gods. The strength in the receiver was 50 o.p. It is reduced in the store vat to 25 o.p.; this is regarded as the ideal strength for maturation.

The young Spirit is filled into butts, hogsheads, puncheons, and quarter casks of American oak and Sherry casks. The distillery is fortunate in having as its associate firm Messrs. D. E. Williams, Ltd., whose extensive Wine trade enables them to supply a large quantity of Sherry casks.

The casks, in their thousands, the content and year marked on the head, are duly rolled into the distillery warehouses. Here, year in, year out, they lie, their long lines stacked in the dim half light, reminiscent of the cloisters of some old monastery. Dust grows on the casks and silence wraps the wood which contains the elements of the zest of life. The Whiskey grows old and matures. Don't imagine, however, that the carefully distilled liquid in these ghost-haunted vaults is forgotten. Not at all. The dusty casks are constantly under the cooper's care. Week after week, with his hand lamp or electric torch, he taps each cask to see that none of the precious liquid leaks through the staves.

A CONNOISSEUR'S WHISKEY

What precisely takes place inside the magic wood of the casks during the long years in bond remains one of nature's mysteries. Chemists have been unable to explain. But the palate knows right well. The Spirit when first bonded has a raw, nauseous odour and is quite undrinkable. But at eight years old what a change! The pungent taste of the baby Spirit has disappeared; the Spirit has become mild and pleasantly mellow. The flavouring oils, by contact with air through the pores of the wood, have undergone change into fragrant and delicious esters and ethers. Aromatic flavours are born and developed to their full richness, giving the Whiskey its characteristic bouquet.

Firing a Still - on peat.

To produce the perfect Whiskey, four things are said to be essential - sound barley, mountain air, pure water, and distilling craft. Here then in the centre of Ireland nature has provided all the requisites for Whiskey making. Well-ripened golden grain from the fertile fields of Offaly, fresh air from the Slieve Bloom hills, water laden with essences from local peat mosses, and a distilling tradition going back to the days of the illicit stills - all these combine to make "Tullamore" a classic Whiskey. It is, indeed, fit usquebaugh for connoisseurs.

 

The Cooperage - where all the casks are examined and coopered prior to filling - in an old orchard		Initial stage of mashing operation. Capacity 13,000 gallons.
Refrigeration - reducing temperature of the worts before fermentation		End view of some distillery warehouses along the Clodiagh river.
Farmer drawing 'sludge' for cattle feeding. (Sludge is residue from brewing tank - liquid).		Excise officer 'dipping' a cask.

THE BOTTLED "DEW"

The distillery company and its associate firm, D. E. Williams, Ltd., have extensive vatting and bottling stores, which cater for their large number of branch retail establishments in the Midlands of Ireland, a wholesale Wine and Spirit trade covering the thirty-two counties, and their export markets.

Now to put the Whiskey into the bottle. Each cask has its own distinctive Whiskey, and a careful selection is made for vatting in order to produce a standard high-grade Whiskey worthy of the firm. In the vat the Spirit is reduced to within a few degrees of drinking strength, and when well roused the various Whiskies are allowed to rest for some time prior to bottling. This ensures proper mixing and helps the "marrying" process.

The bottling plant, with modern filters, labelling and capsuling machines, is the last word in efficiency. The Whiskey is pumped through a filter to a series of revolving syphon tubes every time the machine makes a complete revolution enough bottles to pack a case have been filled without spilling a drop. And what precious golden liquid the bottles hold - the brew of the barley sheaf. Whiskey from Bernard Daly's Distillery, bottled by the House of Williams, ready to go out to the world's markets under the label -"Tullamore Dew". "Give every man his Dew".

PATENT DISTILLING PLANT

And these distillers, with their long tradition, keep a keen watch on current trends in the whiskey trade. As an adjunct to their pot still distillery, they installed some fifteen years ago the most modern type of patent distilling apparatus known as the Coffey still-invented by an Irishman, needless to say. Under one roof, so to speak, they produce all the ingredients for blends of malt, pot still and patent still whiskey. In addition to their "vintage" Irish whiskey of traditional standard they now ship to overseas markets a blended whiskey which competes on equal terms with anything produced on either side of the Atlantic. This whiskey is much lighter in character than the not mal Irish Pot Still product and is the only Malt and Patent Still Blend now being offered from Ireland. Although straight Irish Pot Still Whiskey is regarded here as the finest, consumer taste outside this country finds it somewhat different to the idea of whiskey flavour which has been acquired and developed through a knowledge of other long-established blended whiskies. Under its brand name "TULLAMORE DEW", this Specially Light Blended Whiskey has aroused most favourable interest in the larger world markets where its merits are clearly illustrated by continually increasing and more widespread demand.

Progress in the Irish distilling industry has been of a cyclical nature with periods of expansion followed by contraction. Much depended on competitiveness in export markets, the prevailing spirit duty, consumer taste, and the ability of the Irish distillers to make the appropriate response to changes in these variables.

The late 1860s and 1870s saw considerable expansion in the industry after a period of more or less continuous decline from the 1840s caused principally by the temperance campaign of Fr. Mathew and frequent and heavy increases in the spirit duty which rose from 2s. 8d. per proof gallon in 1840 to 10s. 0d. in 1862. Thereafter, the spirit duty remained steady for almost fifty years until it was raised from 11s. to 14s. 9d. in 1909. But as Louis Cullen has remarked "It was only by the development of export markets that industrial firms could reach a scale of production which would make their costs competitive and hence enable them to survive on the home market against foreign competition." Exports of whiskey doubled between the 1860's and 1870's, doubled again by the 1890s and yet again by the first decade of the twentieth century or from a million gallons in the 1860s to 8.5 million gallons in 1907 - two thirds of Irish output. Despite the increased output on noticeable change took place in the number of firms participating in the industry which, no doubt, means that the participants improved their plants and achieved increased efficiency.

Number of distilleries in Ireland and quantity distilled, 1830 to 1900

The bulk of Irish whiskey exports went to England and probably came from the Belfast and Dublin distilleries and the Malcolm Brown distillery at Dundalk. According to Cullen the doubling of exports in the last decade of the century was associated with the expansion of the market for blended whiskey with its centre at Belfast. In 1907 5.4m gallons out of a total of 8.5m. gallons were exported from Belfast.

Turning to the midlands it is beyond doubt that substantial improvements were taking place at Tullamore distillery and at Locke's of Kilbeggan in the 1870s. According to Alfred Barnard's survey of the Irish distilleries in 1866 annual output at Tullamore distillery was 270,000 gallons, at the Wallace distillery, Birr 200,000 gallons and at Kilbeggan 157,200. There are substantial grounds for believing that these figures are exaggerated by as much as thirty per cent.

However, the trend is there if not absolute certainty and it would indicate that the three midland distilleries produced less than four per cent of total Irish output. Unfortunately, the Banagher distillery was not in operation in 1886 when Barnard made his systematic survey but other evidence would suggest that Banagher could match the combined output of the other three midland distilleries.

The Banagher Distillery Company was established in 1873 with a nominal share capital of £100,000 and head office in London. Three of its directors were London-based including Alderman Sir Sills John Gibbons, a former lord mayor of London, and the remaining two directors, F.A. Waller of Prior Park, Roscrea and Banagher and Captain C.A. Armstrong of Banagher. Why the inland site of Banagher was chosen thus incurring increased transport costs is perhaps explained by the prospectus of the newly formed company where it was stated:

The company have made a very valuable agreement to purchase the lease in perpetuity at a modest rent of the extensive strong and well built stone premises recently in possession of the Banagher Flax Company together with 11 statute acres and 37 perches of land within half a mile of the town of Banagher, in the King's County, and in the centre of one of the best barley growing districts in the midland counties of Ireland, for the sum of £6,500 including the existing valuable plant and machinery, which together are estimated to have cost £10.000, and are in first-rate condition. Payment of the £6,500 to be made in £3,500 in paid-up shares of the company, and £3,000 in money.

The machinery above mentioned comprises a first class 35 horse power horizontal steam engine, with boiler tubes, and fittings; several hundred feet of 3 inch wrought iron shaftings, six pairs of mill stones and two large water wheels with their accessories, all of which will be available for the purposes of the distillery.

A fine steam runs through the premises, and the quality of the water for distilling has been tested, and proved to be of the best kind for the production of whiskey of first rate quality, while quantity is so abundant as to be capable of affording almost the entire motive power required; and it is estimated that this splendid supply of water power will save the company in fuel alone between £100 and £500 per annum.

There is an abundance of peat close to the estate, so that a plentiful supply of fuel can be obtained at a very low rate. The offer of suitable premises nearly ready to receive plant, and capable of turning out 603,000 gallons in the first year, is highly valuable as it will enable the company to commence operations almost immediately, moreover by the possession of surplus land and abundance of water the size of the distillery can be increased as required. Another great advantage of the situation is in having one of the larger tributary streams of the Shannon running up to within 100 yards of the back of the distillery, where a good landing and private road direct to the works have been made, by which means the company can have the benefit of the free navigation of the Shannon both for getting corn and shipping whiskey at a very trifling cost as the river Shannon itself is within a mile of the distillery; but the calculations in the estimates have been made irrespective of this feature.

The resident directors also had a strong interest in the success of the enterprise, Captain Armstrong was the landlord of the property and F.A. Waller would be supplying the distillery with malt - or so it was intended. The prospectus also noted that the demand for Irish whiskey for export was buoyant. The overall figure confirms this and in the King's County Chronicle (29th January 1874) it was stated that the Tullamore distillery had exported in one week no fewer than 200 casks to one house in Liverpool and that some English connection had ordered 1,200 casks for the following year.

Despite the acquisition of the Banagher Flax Company mill the directors deemed it necessary to embark on a substantial construction programme and contracts were given to Messrs. H. Pontifex of King's Cross, London and Mr. James Oxley of Frome, based on plans provided by Mr. Thomas Holbrook, architect. The building work was completed in Spring 1875 a little late for the distilling season of that year though some distilling was done in May.

The construction work was delayed by a shortage of capital as the share issue had been under-subscribed. According to a circular issued by the board to the shareholders in October 1874 it was noted that 'the distillery when completed would be capable of producing upwards of half-a-million gallons of whiskey per annum. The amount actually laid out of the works and paid for the premises is about £42,000 and about £35,000 are required to meet the payments due under contract to complete the works, and £10,000 for working capital, against which the company have in cash and stock, upwards of £5,000 leaving a balance required of about £40,000! The circular went on: 'the capital of £82,000 will it is confidently expected yield a net profit of at least 15 to 20 per cent.' This appeal to the shareholders (173 in all) did not meet with any worthwhile response and in October 1875 it was resolved that affairs be wound up and the company go into liquidation. Thomas Cave, MP. for Barnstaple was appointed liquidator. He, in fact, obtained permission from the Vice Chancellor to borrow £25,000 to carry on the business. It was at this time that the resident directors, Captain Armstrong and F. A. Waller retired from the board for reasons of a technical nature. By April 1876 the distillery was in full swing under the supervision of Mr. William Peacy, distiller, but for whatever reason, low sales, high costs, or simply pressure from nervous creditors the distillery was offered for sale by public auction in September of that year but no bidding was done.

In June 1877 the debenture holders and creditors agreed to the setting up of a new company to be known as the Banagher Whiskey Distillery Co. Ltd to take over all the assets of the old company. Its nominal share capital was £150,000. The company now enjoyed a few successful years with sales outpacing annual production.

A reasonable profit was made but this was offset by capital expenditure on additions and improvements and when the depression came in the late 1870s and 1880s reverses were probably low and too small to withstand the crisis. In July 1880 some of the principal share holders expressed themselves as anxious to liquidate, a move which the directors opposed. At an extraordinary general meeting in October 1889 it was agreed that the Banagher whiskey Distillery Co. Ltd. be wound up and this was confirmed at another E.G.M. in November 1881. The delay was perhaps caused by difficulty in selling the premises. In the company balance sheet for 1881 the property was valued at £118,585. Commenting on the position, the Midland Tribune stated that the Banagher Distillery was projected by Englishmen and manned by Englishmen. It had cost over £100,000 to build but had not in ten years paid a dividend. When in full work it employed about a tenth of the people of Banagher. The duty payable on one season alone amounted to £300,000 (representing 600,000 gallons) and that over 20,000 gallons of spirits could be produced in ten days. The Tribune also noted the capacity of the stills as 22,000 gallons, 11,000 gallons and 10,000 gallons. This made the Banagher stills considerably larger than those at Kilbeggan or Tullamore and almost certainly Birr as well. In August 1884 the liquidator sold to the mortgages all the loose things in and about the distillery. When for sale notices appeared in the newspapers in December it was stated that the distillery was in full working order and the mortgage on the premises amounted to a quarter of the cost of the concern. However, no sale was effected until September 1887 when the premises was conveyed to Adam Scott a wine merchant for £80,000. Scott took possession as a trustee for a new company, the Banagher Distillery Co. Ltd. and for a few years the place appears to have done well though not without the loss of the head malster who was killed in an accident in October 1887.

The third company to take over Banagher was voluntarily wound up in September 1890 and a new fourth company set up, the Dublin City and Banagher Distilleries Ltd. In its prospectus of April 1890 the nominal share capital was state as £115,000.

Subscriptions were also invited at par for £35,000 first mortgage debentures. The new company was established to acquire the Dublin City Distillery property in course of construction by the vendors with plant to produce not less than 1.5 million gallons annually and also to acquire the Banagher distillery as a going concern. The purchase money for the Great Brunswick Street and Banagher properties together with floating assets was £130,000. The whole share issue was more than fully subscribed in the Dublin area alone. The chairman of the new company was A.S. Findlater. The Dublin plant seems to have had a throughput capacity three times as great as that of Banagher.

Surprisingly, the problem of capital bedevilled this new company as it had done the previous ones. At the report of the adjourned A.G.M. of December 1894 it was stated that at least an additional £15,000 was needed. In January 1896 a trading loss of £5,000 on the year's trading was blamed on the lack of capital during the year and on constantly rising grain prices. At the same meeting the chairman said they had been trying to sell Banagher distillery but had not been successful; with the cost of coal they found production costs greater at Banagher distillery but had not been found unsuitable and the high hopes of economics in fuel because of location at Banagher where peat was plentiful had failed to materialise. Coal seems to have been the favoured fuel in the distilleries until the second war when it became unobtainable and peat had to be used as a substitute.

The absence of source material makes the problem of tracing the history of the Banagher distillery in the late 1890s a little difficult. The Banagher distillery was sold by the Dublin City and Banagher distilleries Syndicate Ltd and operated for the years 1897 and 1898.

It was again closed in 1899 and was put up for auction in June of that year. Nobody wanted to buy Banagher as a 'going' concern and in May 1900 the Chronicle reported that 'parties any way anxious to see the Banagher distillery can if they wish see the three stills at the canal stores, number one capacity 22,000 gallons, number two 11,000 gallons and number three 9,100 together with the large tank capacity 75,000 gallons, mash tuns, machinery etc. all smashed up as old copper and iron and bought by a prosperous marine store dealer. The walls of the building can be seen at Garrycastle.......'

The Dublin City Distillery fared no better on its own and at the 1901 A.G.M. the chairman blamed the loss of that year on the increased cost of material. Other distilleries, he said were passing through critical times and selling at a price that left for no return. The Dublin City Company was wound up in 1905 and a receiver appointed. Daniel E. Williams became the occupier of the malt house section of the Banagher property in 1903 and the rest of the distillery property in 1914. Banagher has always been considered the finest of the Williams maltings and it is hoped to trace its development in a future article.

(Reprinted from Harman Murtagh (ed.), Irish Midland Studies: Essays in honour of N. W. English, Athlone 1980, pp 213-228. Copyright reserved for private use only.)

Part 4
THE TULLAMORE DISTILLERY,
1881 TO 1954

Only one Offaly distillery that of B. Daly & Co. at Tullamore entered the present century. Birr distillery ceased production in 1889 after a disastrous fire and, as has been seen, Banagher closed in 1898.¹ There are some grounds for believing that Tullamore’s position was just as difficult as that which had prevailed at Banagher. In 1881 Bernard Daly, the proprietor of the distillery, found it necessary to mortgage the premises to obtain a loan of c. £40,000.² Apparently the distillery was in financial difficulties because the money could hardly have been used to finance capital investment which had been undertaken in the period 1869 to 1875.³ Bernard Daly died in May 1887, and in his will he bequeathed the Tullamore distillery to his wife ‘to do what she thought proper with’.⁴ The balance owing to the Bank of Ireland on the 1881 mortgage of the distillery premises was £32,054.⁵ The distillery might have had to go into liquidation at the time but that J. R. Mallins, a Dublin wine and spirit merchant, entered into a bond of £67,200 for the due administration of the Daly estate.⁶

In January 1888 Daly’s widow, their son Bernard Daly, and a cousin B. S. Mara, agreed to enter a partnership to carry on the business under the name of B. Daly & Co.⁷ Mallins contracted to buy all the unsold stocks in the stores of the distillery within two years. The value of the whiskey stocks amounted to c. £40,000. Mallins was also nominated the sole agent for the purchase of the whiskey manufactured at Tullamore for a period of fifteen years, with the option of holding the agency for a further six years, if required.⁸ By August 1891 the debt owing to the Bank of Ireland on the 1881 mortgage had been entirely paid, partly out of the whiskey stocks owned by B. Daly & Co. and partly out of money advanced by Mallins.⁹ It is not known how the distillery fared under the partnership, or what problems it had to face. Perhaps Tullamore encountered the same difficulties as the Banagher and Dublin City Distilleries. In any case in July 1901 Mallins took an action against B. Daly & Co., but prior to any judicial decision an agreement was reached that provided for the dissolution of the existing partnership and the conveyance of the distillery to Mallins.¹⁰ This would almost certainly have marked the end of the road for the Tullamore distillery, but that a new limited company was established in 1903 with a paid up capital of £30,000. The new company, which was owned by Captain Daly, B. S. Mara and E. J. Williams, purchased the distillery for almost £20,000.¹¹

The general picture of the Irish distilling industry in the period 1900 to 1954 is that of a steady decline offset only during the years of the first and second world wars when output was expanded to cater for a large export market. The main reason for the decline was the steep rise in the spirit duty from 11s. p.p.g. in 1908 to £8. 16s. 0d. p.p.g. in 1952. Another reason was the loss of British and American markets to Scotch. This came about for a variety of reasons: failure on the part of the southern Irish pot still distillers to see the demand, both in England and America, for a blended whiskey (i.e. a mix of whiskies, often including pot still and patent whiskey. Patent whiskey is the more economical to produce because in one distillation the patent or continuous still can produce spirit containing between eighty-six per cent and ninety-six per cent alcohol) and the closure of the American market during the years of prohibition, 1920-33. The world-wide depression of the ‘thirties and the Irish government’s restrictions on whiskey exports during the war years prevented any attempt to gain a foothold on the American market until the 1950s. Despite a combined effort in the late ‘fifties on the part of the Irish distillers and support from the Irish Export Board (C.T.T.) progress in the American market was very slow.

Conditions at Tullamore provide a useful indicator of the general state of the industry. Output rose gradually from 50,000 p.g. to 100,000 p.g. in 1910-16, and jumped in 1919 and 1920 to over 200,000 gallons. The fall was no less dramatic and by 1924 output had declined to 20,000 p.g. After a slight rise in 1925 the distillery ceased production.¹² In the same year three out of the seven distilleries in the Free State closed.¹³ Both Kilbeggan and Monasterevan closed in the early ‘twenties, the latter for good.¹⁴ The crisis in the early ‘twenties was almost certainly caused by the severe increases in spirit duty in 1919 and 1920. The duty was advanced from 30s. in 1918 to 50s. in 1919 and 72s. 6d. in 1920. Between 1909 and 1920 the duty had risen from 11s. to 72s. 6d. The closure of the American market and the severe economic climate at home all militated against any early recovery from the duty increases. The recession in the distilling industry also affected the brewing industry, and in turn the agricultural community which supplied the grain. In some years in the ‘twenties barley prices fell below production costs. Between 11921 and 1923 the average price per barrel of malt paid by Arthur Guinness & Son fell by fifty per cent from 58s. 4½d. to 29s. 4d., and seldom rose above 30s. until the mid-thirties.¹⁵ The loss to the farmers of what was looked on as a valuable cash crop must have been severely felt. It was estimated that distillers used 400,000 barrels of Irish barley, or one-third of the available crop in 1919, but only five per cent in the early ‘thirties.¹⁶

By the mid-1930s conditions had again improved and both home consumption and exports were showing an upward swing. The indications are that but for the war this would have been short lived. During the war years and up to 1952 home consumption rose from 494,242 p.g. in 1939 to 770,299 in 1952, while exports increased from 167,239 p.g. to 458,784 in the same years.¹⁷ The spirit duty increases of 1952 in both the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland seriously affected home consumption and export markets. It is doubtful if the distillery plant and buildings at Tullamore could have been maintained, and funds found to finance the capital investment of 1938 when distilling recommenced, but for the financial assistance of D. E. Williams Ltd., which had in the meantime purchased complete control of B. Daly & Co. Ltd. The association of the two companies was also useful in that it facilitated a greater spread of management costs because executives were transferable from one company to the other. Almost certainly the Tullamore distillery would have followed Monasterevan to the wall, but that the senior associate company had the resources to keep a ‘silent’ distillery open for thirteen years (1925-37). Sales of Tullamore whiskey in the 1940s were largely in the U.K. and Irish markets. The letter of neutrality was enforced in 1944 when the department of supplies refused permission to export whiskey to American forces in Northern Ireland.¹⁸ In November of that year the department agreed to allow forty per cent of the current season’s production for export, thirty per cent for customers within the country and thirty per cent for bonding.¹⁹

Up to 1948 the Tullamore distillery produced pot still whiskey only. The conservative southern Irish distillers did not favour the production of patent whiskey, and this business was confined to Northern Ireland. In 1946 the B. Daly board decided on the purchase of a patent still capable of producing 1,200 gallons per hour, and this came into production in 1948.²⁰ In June 1951 it was replaced by a smaller still with a throughput capacity of 600 to 700 gallons per hour.²¹ The purchase of a patent still increased plant capacity by 100 per cent to 0.5 million gallons per year.²² Over the four year period 1948-51 the production of patent whiskey as a percentage of total B. Daly output grew from five to nineteen per cent.²³ Total output peaked in 1949 at almost 300,000 p.g.²⁴ A rise in the spirit duties both in the Republic and the U.K. in 1952, along with a fall in U.K. demand as Scotch came off ration after the war, sent exports tumbling in 1954 to one-third their 1952 level.²⁵ Home consumption also fell.²⁶ At Tullamore production declined to 31,000 p.g. in 1954 pushing up the production costs per gallon to a level unobtainable in the market place and as a result distilling ceased.²⁷ Kilbeggan closed a year earlier and went into receivership in 1958.²⁸ Resumption of distilling at Tullamore has never been ruled out but when B. Daly’s associate company, D. E. Williams Ltd., sold the brand name ‘Tullamore Dew’ to Power’s in 1965 the possibility became more remote.²⁹

Kilbeggan and Tullamore were the only inland distilleries to survive the decline after the First World War. In the above article an attempt has been made to survey the progress of the industry at a local level. Prior to 1900, the industry, while important in Offaly as a source of employment and a market for grain, was unimportant in terms of overall contribution to national output. It was only in the years immediately after the First World War and in the period 1940-52 that the midland distilleries made any significant contribution to national output.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to express my thanks to the board of D. E. Williams Ltd. for permission to use material in their archive. I also wish to thank Dr. David Dickson, Dr. Aidan Clarke, and Mr. Edmund Longworth for their very helpful comments.

Footnotes

1. Ibid., 28 March 1889, 19 January 1899.
2. D. E. W. L. archive: title deeds to B. Daly and Co. Ltd. property, Bernard Daly to the governor of the Bank of Ireland, 30 May 1881 (or see memorial 1881 - 22 -23 in Registry of deeds, Dublin).
3. Valuation Office, Ely Place, Dublin: valuation of town of Tullamore, 1870-83.
4. King’s County Chronicle, 19 May 1887; D. E. W. L. archive: title deeds to B. Daly & Co. Ltd., will of Bernard Daly.
5. Recited in Mary Anne Daly and ors. to J.R. Mallins. 25 Jan. 1902 (Or memorial 1902 - 18 - 61 in Registry of deeds. Dublin).
6. See Mary Anne Daly and ors. to J.R. Mallins, 25 January 1902. deed of release.
7. Mary Anne Daly and ors. to J.R. Mallins. 10 January 1888 (or see memorial 1888 - 4 - 131 in Registry of deeds, Dublin).
8. Ibid.
9. Reassignment, governor of the Bank of Ireland to Mary Anne Daly and ors.. 11 July 1891 (or see memorial 1891 - 41 - 272 in Registry of deeds. Dublin).
10. Mallins v. Daly. 3 July 1901: assignment. Mary Anne Daly and ors. to J.R. Mallins, 25 January 1902 (or see memorial 1902 - 18 - 61 in Registry of deeds, Dublin).
11. Bernard Daly and ors. with Jeremiah Buckley, accountant. 5 August 1903.
12. D. E. W. L. archive: distillery production books, 1909-19. and 1919-54.
13. See the Third annual report of the revenue commisioners of Saorstat Eireann, year ended 31st March 1926. p. 134 (1928) and the Fourth report. . . 1927. p. 136 (1928).
14. John Holmes, ‘Monasterevan distillery’ p. 486; Business records of Locke’s distillery. Kilbeg-gan (N.L.I.. MS 20,276).
15. D. E. W. L. archive: malt production records.
16. See C.E. Reddin, ‘The distilling industry’ in The Licensed Vintner and Grocer (March 1936), p.20.
17. For the export figures see the Twenty-first report of the revenue commissioners….1944, p. 60 (P. no. 6909) and the Thirty-second report... 1955. p.59 (Pr. 3215). Home consumption figures are derived from Irish Whiskey Distillers Association, The story of Irish whiskey (Dublin, 1961), not paginated.
18. D. E.W. L. archive: minute book of B. Daly and Co. Ltd., vol. i (Sept. 1903-Jan. 1945), March 1944.
19. Ibid., 29 November 1944.
20. Minute book of B. Daly and Co. Ltd., vol. ii (Jan. 1945 - July 1947), 22 May 1946; and see B. Daly excise entry papers in transfer box 24 in D. E. W. L. archive
21. Minute book of B. Daly and Co. Ltd., vol. iv (Feb. 1951-Jan. 1956), 9 May 1951.
22. See papers relating to production and plant in B. Daly papers, transfer box 24.
23. Distillery production book, 1919-54.
24. Ibid.
25. Thirty-second report of the revenue commissioners . . . 1955. p.59 (Pr. 3215).
26. The story of Irish whiskey.
27. See copybook marked ‘B. Daly and Co. Ltd., whiskey costings 1953-54, 1954 whiskey’, in transfer box 18, D. E. W. L. archive.
28. N.L.I., MS 20,276. p. I.
29. Papers relating to this sale are ‘on file’ with D. E. W. L.

(Reprinted from Harman Murtagh (ed.), Irish Midland Studies: Essays in honour of N. W. English, Athlone 1980, pp 213-228. Copyright reserved for private use only.)

Part 3
THE BANAGHER DISTILLERY FAILURE,
1873-98

The late 1860s and 1870s saw considerable expansion in the industry after a period of decline from the 1840s caused principally by the temperance campaign and by frequent and heavy increases in the spirit duty, which rose from 2s. 8d. p.p.g. in 1840 to 10s. in 1862. Thereafter the spirit duty remained steady for almost fifty years until it was raised from 10s. to 14s. 9d. in 1909. The expansion in the distilling industry is all the more interesting because it was an export-based recovery and came at a time when most Irish industries were succumbing to foreign competition. As Cullen noted, exports of whiskey doubled between the 1860s and the 1870s, doubled again by the 1890s and yet again by the first decade of the twentieth century, or from one million gallons in the 1860s to 8.5 million gallons in 1907 — two-thirds of Irish output in that year.¹ The number of firms in the industry increased only marginally and the increased output is accounted for by participants improving their existing plants. The patent still distillers, mostly located in the north of Ireland, and catering for the blended whiskey market, were largely responsible for the increased output.²

The 1870s saw capital investment in the industry on a scale even greater than that which had taken place in the 1820s. The Dunville distillery was established in 1869. Power’s distillery at John’s Lane was rebuilt in 1871, while the Phoenix Park distillery was erected in 1878.³ In the midlands, where there were now only three distilleries, substantial improvements took place at Locke’s of Kilbeggan and at Tullamore.⁴ But undoubtedly the most interesting local development was the formation of the Banagher Distillery Co. Ltd. in 1873. It was established with a nominal share capital of £100,000 and a head office in London. Three of its directors were London-based, including Alderman Sir Sills John Gibbons, a former lord mayor of London, and the remaining two directors were described as resident Irish directors, F. A. Waller of Prior Park, Roscrea and Banagher, and Captain C. A Armstrong of Banagher.⁵ Why the inland site of Banagher was chosen, thus incurring increased transport costs, is perhaps explained by the prospectus of the newly formed company where it was stated:

The company have made a very valuable agreement to purchase the lease in perpetuity at a modest rent of the extensive strong and well built stone premises recently in possession of the Banagher Flax Company together with eleven statute acres and thirty-seven perches of land within half a mile of the town of Banagher, in the King’s County, and in the centre of one of the best barley growing districts in the midland counties of Ireland, for the sum of £6,500, including the existing valuable plant and machinery, which together are estimated to have cost £10,000, and are in first-rate condition. Payment of the £6,500 to be made in £3,500 paid-up shares of the company, and £3,000 in money.
The machinery above mentioned comprises a first class thirty-five horse power horizontal steam engine, with boiler, tubes, and fittings; several hundred feet of three-inch wrought iron shaftings, six pairs of mill stones and two large water wheels with their accessories, all of which will be available for the purpose of the distillery.
A fine stream runs through the premises, and the quality of the water for distilling has been tested, and proved to be of the best kind for the production of whisky of first rate quality, while the quantity is so abundant as to be capable of affording almost the entire motive power required; and it is estimated that this splendid supply of water power will save the company in fuel alone between £100 and £500 per annum.
There is abundance of peat close to the estate, so that a plentiful supply of fuel can be obtained at a very low rate. The offer of suitable premises nearly ready to receive plant, and capable of turning out 603,000 gallons in the first year, is highly valuable as it will enable the company to commence operations almost immediately, moreover by the possession of surplus land and abundance of water the size of the distillery can be increased as required. Another great advantage of the situation is in having one of the larger tributary streams of the Shannon running up to within 100 yards of the back of the distillery, where a good landing and private road direct into the works have been made, by which means the company can have the benefit of the free navigation of the Shannon both for getting corn and shipping whisky at a very trifling cost as the river Shannon itself is within a mile of the distillery; but the calculations in the estimates have been made irrespective of this feature.⁶

The resident directors also had a strong interest in the success of the enterprise, Captain Armstrong was the landlord of the property and F. A. Waller would be supplying the distillery with malt — or so it was intended. The prospectus also noted that the demand for Irish whiskey for export was buoyant.⁷ The figures confirm this and in the King’s County Chronicle of 29 January 1874, it was stated that the Tullamore distillery had exported in one week no fewer than 200 casks to one house in Liverpool and that an English connection had ordered 1,200 casks for the following year.

Despite the acquisition of the Banagher Flax Company mill, the directors deemed it necessary to embark on a substantial construction programme and contracts were given to Messrs H. Pontifex of King’s Cross, London and Mr. James Oxley of Frome, based on plans provided by Mr. Thomas Holbrook, architect.⁸ The building work was completed in spring 1875, a little late for the distilling season of that year though some distilling was done in May. ⁹ The construction work was delayed by a shortage of capital as the share issue had been under-subscribed. According to a circular issued by the board to the shareholders in October 1874 it was noted that:

the distillery when completed would be capable of producing upwards of half-a-million gallons of whiskey per annum. The amount actually laid out on the works and paid for the premises is about £42,000 and about £35,000 are required to meet the payments due under contract to complete the works, and £10,000 for working capital, against which the company have in cash and stock, upwards of £5,000 leaving a balance required of about £40,000 . . . the capital of £82,000 will it is confidently expected yield a net profit of at least fifteen to twenty per cent.¹⁰

This appeal to the shareholders (173 in all) did not meet with any worthwhile response and in October 1875 it was resolved that affairs be wound up and that the company go into liquidation. Thomas Cave, M.P. for Barnstaple, was appointed liquidator.¹¹ He, in fact, obtained permission from the vice-chancellor to borrow £25,000 to carry on the business.¹² It was at this time that the resident directors, Captain Armstrong and F. A. Waller, retired from the board ‘for reasons of a technical nature.’¹³ By April 1876 the distillery was in full swing under the supervision of Mr. William Peacy, distiller, but for whatever reason, low sales, high costs, or simply pressure from nervous creditors, the distillery was offered for sale by public auction in August of that year; but no bidding was done.¹⁴

In December 1876 the debenture holders and creditors agreed to the setting up of a new company to be known as the Banagher Whiskey Distillery Co. Ltd. to take over all the assets of the old company. Its nominal share capital was £150,000.¹⁵ The company now enjoyed a few successful years with sales outpacing annual production. A reasonable profit was made, but this was offset by capital expenditure on additions and improvements and when the depression came in the late 1870s and 1880s reserves were probably low and too small to withstand the crisis.¹⁶ About July 1880 some of the principal shareholders expressed themselves as anxious to liquidate, a move which the directors opposed.¹⁷ At an extraordinary general meeting in October 1881 it was agreed that the Banagher Whiskey Distillery Co. Ltd. be wound up and this was confirmed at another a.g.m. in November 1881.¹⁸ The delay was perhaps caused by difficulty in selling the premises. In the company balance sheet for 1881 the property was valued at £118,585.¹⁹ Commenting on the position, the recently established Land League paper the Midland Tribune stated that the Banagher distillery was projected by Englishmen and manned by Englishmen. It had cost over £100,000 to build but had not in ten years paid a dividend. When in full work it employed about a tenth of the people of Banagher. The duty payable on one season alone amounted to £300,000 (representing 600,000 gallons) and over 20,000 gallons of spirit could be produced in ten days. The Tribune also noted the capacity of the stills as 22,000 gallons, 11,000 gallons and 10,000 gallons.²⁰ This made the Banagher stills considerably larger than those at Kilbeggan or Tullamore, and almost certainly Birr as well.²¹ In August 1884 the liquidator sold to the mortgagees all the loose things in and about the distillery.²² When ‘for sale’ notices appeared in the newspapers in December, it was stated that the distillery was in full working order and that the mortgage on the premises amounted to a quarter of the cost of the concern.²³ However no sale was effected until July 1887 when the premises were conveyed to Adam Scott, a wine merchant, for £80,000.²⁴ Scott took possession as a trustee for a new company, the Banagher Distillery Co. Ltd., and for a few years the place appears to have done well.²⁵

The third company to take over Banagher was voluntarily wound up in July 1890 and a new fourth company set up, the Dublin City and Banagher Distilleries Ltd. In its prospectus of April 1890 the nominal share capital was stated as £115,000. Subscriptions were also invited at par for £35,000 first mortgage debentures. The new company was established to acquire the Dublin City Distillery property, in course of construction by the vendors, with plant to produce not less than 1.5 million gallons annually and also to acquire the Banagher distillery as a going concern. The purchase money for the Great Brunswick Street and Banagher properties together with floating assets was £130,000. The whole share issue was more than fully subscribed in the Dublin area alone.²⁶ The chairman of the new company was A. S. Findlater.²⁷ The Dublin plant seems to have had a throughput capacity three times as great as that of Banagher.²⁸

Surprisingly, the problem of capital bedeviled this new company as it had done the previous ones. At the report of the adjourned a.g.m. of December 1894 it was stated that at least an additional £15,000 was needed.²⁹ In January 1896 a trading loss of £5,000 on the year’s trading was blamed on the lack of capital during the year and on constantly rising grain prices. At the same meeting the chairman said they had been trying to sell Banagher distillery but had not been successful; with the cost of coal they found production costs greater at Banagher than at Dublin.³⁰ Apparently peat had been found unsuitable and the high hopes of economies in fuel because of location at Banagher where peat was plentiful had failed to materialise. Coal seems to have been the favoured fuel in the distilleries until the Second World War when it became unobtainable and peat had to be used as a substitute.

The absence of source material makes it difficult to trace in detail the history of the Banagher distillery in the late 1890s. However, it was sold by the Dublin City and Banagher Distilleries Co. Ltd. in January 1897 for £9,000 to a fifth company the Whisky Distillers Syndicate Ltd. and operated for the years 1897 and 1898.³¹ It was again closed in 1899 and was put up for auction in June of that year.³² Nobody wanted to buy Banagher as a going concern and in May 1900 the Chronicle reported that:

parties any way anxious to see the Banagher distillery can if they wish see the three stills at the canal stores, number one capacity 22,000 gallons, number two 11,000 gallons and number three 9,000 together with the large tank capacity 75,000 gallons, mash tuns, machinery etc. all smashed up as old copper and iron and bought by a prosperous marine store dealer. The walls of the building can be seen at Garrycastle…..³³

Not very much is known about the other two Offaly distilleries, particularly Birr, during the 1870s and 1880s, but Barnard’s survey of the Irish distilleries in 1885 provides comparative material. Table 2. The midland distilleries in 1885: output and employment Distillery Output (p.g.) Employment B. Daly, Tullamore 270,000 100 R. & J. Wallace, Birr 200,000 40 John Locke, Kilbeggan 157,200 70 (Based on Barnard, op. cit., pp 389, 394.)

The midland distilleries were all engaged in the production of pot still whiskey (i.e. either a malt whiskey distilled from a mash entirely composed of malted barley or a gram whiskey made from a mixed mash of malted and unmalted grain but subject to three distillations). The midland distillers found a market for their output in Dublin, Belfast, London, Liverpool and the colonies.³⁴ Although in 1883, it was noted in regard to Locke’s that their trade, though extensive in England, was done principally in Ireland, where they were getting a higher price.³⁵

Footnotes

1. Cullen, Econ. hist. Ire, since 1660, pp 157-8.
2. Ibid.
3. Alfred Barnard. The whisky distilleries of the United Kingdom (London. 1887, reprinted, Newton Abbot. 1969. with a new introduction by I.A. Glen), pp 426, 357, 380.
4. Valuation Office, Ely Place. Dublin: see the schedule of improvements in the 1870s in Tullamore town valuation, 1870-88; for Kilbeggan see the manuscript valuation. 1855-83, county district of Mullingar, electoral division of Kilbeggan. The main part of the distillery was situated at 1 Lower Main Street, and carried a valuation of £130 in 1855. Following a request from Locke’s, the valuation was reduced to £100 in 1865 ‘on the grounds of depres-sion in the business of late years’. The former valuation was restored in 1872, when it was reported that the distillery was fully employed. In the same year the valuation on one of Locke’s malt houses was raised from £25 to £39.
5. King’s County Chronicle,13 February 1873.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 25 September 1873.
9. Ibid., 18 February 1875 and 29 April 1875.
10. Ibid.. 29 October 1874.
11. D. E. W. L. archive: title deeds of the Midland Maltings Co. Ltd., conveyance of 13 July 1887, Thomas Cave and ors. to Adam Scott (or see memorial 1887 - 38 - 35 in Registry of deeds, Dublin).
12. King’s County Chronicle, 7 December 1876.
13. Ibid., 27 January 1876.
14. Ibid., 13 April 1876, and see recital in conveyance of 13 July 1887, Cave and ors. to Scott.
15. Conveyance of 13 July 1887, Cave and ors. to Scott.
16. King’s County Chronicle, 25 September 1879.
17. Ibid., 8 July 1880.
18. Conveyance of 13 July 1887, Cave and ors. to Scott.
19. King’s County Chronicle, 23 August 1883.
20. Midland Tribune, 12 July 1883.
21. See Barnard, Whisky distilleries, pp 388, 394.
22. Conveyance of 13 July 1887, Cave and ors. to Scott.
23. King’s County Chronicle, 4 September 1884.
24. Conveyance of 13 July 1887, Cave and ors. to Scott.
25. D. E. W. L. archive title deeds of the Midland Maltings Co. Ltd., conveyance of 9 September 1890; Banagher Distilling Co. Ltd. to Dublin City and Banagher Distillery Co. Ltd. (or see memorial, 1890- 44 - 56 in Reg. of deeds); Midland Tribune, 27 October 1887.
26. King’s County Chronicle, 1 May 1890; conveyance. Banagher Distillery Co. Ltd. to Dublin City and Banagher Distilleries Ltd., 9 September 1890.
27. King’s County Chronicle, 15 May 1890.
28. Ibid., 1 May 1890.
29. Ibid., 13 December 1894.
30. Ibid., 2 January 1896.
31. D. E. W. L. archive: title deeds to Midland Maltings Co. Ltd., conveyance, the Dublin City and Banagher Distilleries Ltd. and ors. to the Whisky Distillers Syndicate Ltd.. King’s County Chronicle, 28 January 1897, 3 June 1897, 30 December 1897; Midland Tribune, 30 January 1897; Tullamore and King’s County Independent 4 December 1897.
32. King’s County Chronicle, 19 January 1899, 22 June 1899.
33. Ibid.. 17 May 1900. The Dublin City Distillery fared no better on its own, and at the 1901 a.g.m. the chairman blamed the loss of that year on the increased cost of material. Other distilleries, he said, were passing through critical times and selling at a price that left for no return. The Dublin City Co. was wound up in 1905 and a receiver appointed (see King’s County Chronicle, 3 January 1901 and 2 March 1905).
34. King’s County Chronicle, 27 March 1884, 12 April 1883, 4 April 1884.
35. Ibid., 16 August 1883.

(Reprinted from Harman Murtagh (ed.), Irish Midland Studies: Essays in honour of N. W. English, Athlone 1980, pp 213-228. Copyright reserved for private use only.)

Part 2
CHANGES IN LOCATION AND STRUCTURE,
1823 TO 1870

The 1823 distillery act completely overturned the old system based on still licence charges. Instead excise duty was to be payable on actual not imputed output. This gave distillers freedom to distil slowly and ‘deliberately sought to encourage ‘‘men of little capital to set up small distilleries”.’¹ Distilleries would no longer be penalised for having large stills and thus the way was open for the development of more efficient distilling plant through capital investment. It is likely that the level of investment in the Irish distilling industry in the 1820s was not reached again until the export based expansion of the 1870s. In Offaly the number of distilleries rose from three to six in the ten-year period 1822-32.² Only a little is known of some of the new entrepreneurs. Perhaps anticipating the reforms in the excise laws, Henry and Charles Pentland, merchants and carpenters, took a lease in 1821 from Lord Charleville, the proprietor of Tullamore, of a plot of ground in the Market Square, Tullamore (now the Egan-Tarleton Ltd. property), for £25 a year rent. They promised to expend £1,000 on buildings.³ Shortage of capital created problems and in 1822 the brothers found it necessary to mortgage the distillery to Thomas Manley, a local Quaker businessman with brewing and malting interests, to secure a loan of £3,500.⁴ The distillery continued to function until the mid-1830s. In a more fortunate position in regard to capital was Michael Molloy, also of Tullamore, who established a distillery at Bridge Street, Tullamore, in 1829 (on the back garden of the house now owned by Oliver Freaney & Co., accountants).⁵ Molloy, who was about fifty years of age, was a member of a catholic merchant family and had earlier been in business with his brother Anthony as wine and spirit grocers.⁶ The new distillery was on the same site as the one operated by Joseph Flanagan from at least 1784 to the early 1800s.⁷ In the mid-1830s Molloy acquired further property, including a mill concern adjoining the distillery and fronting Patrick Street.⁸

The progress of the Offaly distilleries can be gauged from the output figures of 1832:

Table I: output of Offaly distilleries in 1832 in proof gallons (p.g.)

Other midland distilleries not included in the above are John Birch, Roscrea (65,597), Edward Conroy, Mountmellick (47,492) and Patrick Brett & Co., Kilbeggan (42,941).⁹ The general picture only serves to confirm Cullen’s view that the major centres of the distilling industry were located at Dublin, Cork and Belfast. These three centres accounted for forty per cent of national output in 1836.¹⁰ In 1832 the output of the Dublin distillery of George Roe was twice that of the Offaly distillers combined.¹¹ Of course, the question arises as to how well the officially reported output figures compared with actual output, including that from the illicit stills? Based on the evidence supplied to the Poor Inquiry commission of 1836, there is nothing to indicate that illicit distilling was prevalent in any part of the county except the barony of Garrycastle in the north-west, the largest in the county, but also the poorest.¹² The ability of poteen distillers to function, was largely dependent on poor communications and as a result, ineffective policing. Garrycastle, much of which is bogland, had a poor road network. It was not that the people in west Offaly had a peculiar liking for poteen in preference to ‘parliament’ or legally distilled whiskey, but a reflection of environmental conditions.

By 1830 the output of the Irish distilling industry had risen to 8.7 million proof gallons (m.p.g.) while the number of firms in the industry had increased from forty in 1822 to seventy-nine in 1830.¹³ The newly established distilleries were obviously of considerable benefit not only to the urban unemployed, but also to the farming community.

In replying to queries from the Poor Inquiry Commission in 1836 the Rev. Charles Burton of Ballyboy, Offaly wrote:

The general condition of the poorer classes [has] not improved; some years before the period mentioned in this query [i.e. before 1815] they had a manufacture in this town in wool, making stuffs, &c., combing the wool, and going through the whole process of its manufacture; but now nothing of the kind, industry a blank, and not much agricultural improvement. I think the population of the parish the most thriving manufacture and the consequence is poverty in equal ratio. The town of Frankford [Kilcormac] is in some measure improving in consequence of a distillery being established there, which stirs up the resources of the country, and causes a vast deal of corn, turf, &c., to be brought in, and in other respects serves the labourer and the poor person.¹⁴

By 1840 the number of firms in the industry had risen to eighty-six, but the temperance campaign of Father Mathew was beginning to take effect, and in 1841 national output had fallen to 6.097 m.p.g. Changes in regard to structure and location were taking place in the industry because of keen competition, and the less efficient were being forced out. Output at 8.612 m.p.g. in 1850 was almost the same as in 1840, but the number of firms had declined to fifty-one. This decline was exacerbated after 1853 because of the rise in excise duty with a consequent fall off in the demand for spirits, and in 1860 the number of firms was thirty-five. This fell to twenty-two by 1870. In the latter year output was down only fifteen per cent on the 1830 figure, but the number of firms had fallen from seventy-nine in 1830 to twenty-two in 1870. With the exception of the midland distilleries almost all the distilleries were now located at the ports, and with larger and more efficient units were in a much better position to take advantage of the growing demand on the British market.¹⁵

Many of the smaller distilleries depended on local or regional markets. The unproved transport facilities, both canal and rail, provided the country distillers with an opportunity to widen their markets, but only if they could compete with the larger producers, in particular the Dublin distillers. Obviously, many were unable to compete and saw their own local markets penetrated and undermined. The survival of the midland distilleries at Monasterevan, Kilbeggan, Tullamore, Banagher and Birr must be evidence of the ability of the midland distillers to use the Grand Canal navigation to their advantage. Another factor in their favour was the existence of a good supply of grain. Both Kildare and Offaly, because of the suitability of the soil, are good centres for barley production and now major centres of the malting industry.

The malting industry was undergoing the same structural changes experienced by the distilling industry. In 1785 there were 2,216 malt houses in Ireland, but by 1835 this had fallen to 388 producing twice as much.¹⁶ Concentration in the industry continued very much in line with developments in the distilling and brewing industries.¹⁷ According to Patrick Lynch, by 1880 Arthur Guinness & Son were purchasing over half of the Irish barley crop.¹⁸ Firms such as F. A. Waller of Banagher sent malt by canal to Guinness from the 1840s, and in the latter half of the century were joined by the Tullamore firms of Tarleton, Egan and Williams.

The general decline in the number of firms in the distilling industry is reflected at a local level. One of the two Birr distilleries, that of Arthur Robinson in Castle Street, closed in 1848, as also did the Kilcormac distillery.¹⁹ It would seem that Roscrea closed in 1850.²⁰The Banagher distillery (nowadays referred to as the old Banagher distillery) ceased production in the 1850s or 1860s.²¹ The Pentland-Manley distillery at Tullamore ran into difficulties from the mid-1830s.²² In 1840 it was let to the Kilbeggan distiller John Locke (who had taken over the distillery of Brett & Co., Kilbeggan) at £100 a year, but he surrendered the lease in 1841.²³ Soon after the place was used as a temporary workhouse; it later became a steam saw mills, and eventually a maltings.²⁴ The Molloy distillery at Tullamore, smallest in terms of output in 1832, survived the temperance campaign and protected itself against competition through an expansion programme in the mid-1830s.²⁵ When the valuation surveyors examined the premises in 1843 they noted that the buildings were all in excellent repair, that the distillery business was carried on extensively, and that the machinery was all worked by steam power.²⁶ However, it is not known what increases in output were achieved as no distillery records have survived prior to 1870.²⁷ Michael Molloy died unmarried in 1846, bequeathing the distillery to his five nephews and about £15,000 to his family.²⁸ The distillery was sold by the court of chancery in 1848 to Molloy’s brother, Anthony, for £2,700.²⁹ Anthony Molloy who died in 1851 bequeathed the distillery to Bernard Daly, one of the five above mentioned nephews.³⁰

Footnotes

1. Weir, ‘The patent still distillers’, p.135.
2. See Appendix to the fifth report ... Ire., p.117, and Appendix to the seventh report of the commissioners of excise inquiry into the excise establishment, and into the management and collection of the excise revenue, pp 233-34. H.C. 1834 (7), xxv.
3. Registry of deeds, Dublin: see Pentland and Pentland to Manley, 15 Oct. 1822, in memorial 776 - 483 - 526019.
4. Ibid.
5. See date over entrance gate to the distillery in Distillery Lane, Tullamore.
6. Pigot & Co.’s city of Dublin and Hibernian provincial directory etc. (Manchester, 1824), p.186; Registry of deeds, Dublin: see Tydd to Doherty, 1 May 1796, in memorial 519 - 256 - 339510.
7. See Commons’ jn. Ire., x, pt. 2. app. dxxiii. Flanagan’s will was proved in 1804 — see Vicars, Prerog. wills.
8. P.R.O.I., 5.3214: manuscript valuation of Tullamore, vol. i, property no. 216. See also a deed among the B. Daly papers in the D.E. Williams Ltd. archive at Patrick Street, Tulla-more (hereafter cited as D. E. W. L. archive), John Ridley to Michael Molloy, 1 Feb. 1836. There is no definite evidence that the mill property was assigned to Molloy in the mid-thirties, but it is likely because the lessee of the property, John Killaly, the canal engineer, died in 1832. See Ruth Delany, The Grand Canal of Ireland (Newton Abbot, 1973), p.55.
9. Appendix to seventh report . . . Ire., pp 233-4.
10. L. M. CuIlen, An economic history of Ireland since 1660 (London, 1972). p.124.
11. Appendix to seventh report . . . Ire., pp 233-4.
12. Supplement to appendix E of First report from his majesty’s commissioners for inquiry into the condition of the poorer classes in Ireland, pp 77-87. H.C. 1836. xxxii. 189-99.
13. McGuire. Irish Whiskey. p.246.
14. Poor inquiry, p.77, xxxii. 189.
15. For statistical material on the number of firms in the industry from 1840 to 1870 see McGuire. Ir. whiskey. p.246. Regarding output figures see Weir. ‘The patent still distillers’, p.138; see also Returns relating to spirits distilled in each collection of excise in England, Scotland and Ireland, and spirits removed to and from each country: from the 10th October 1839 to the 10th October 1841. p.1, H.C. 1842 (238), xxxix. 545.
16. CuIlen, Econ. hist. Ire, since 1660, pp 92, 123.
17. See T. Callan Macardle and Walter Callan, ‘The brewing industry in Ireland’ in William P. Coyne (ed.), Ireland, industrial and agricultural (Dublin, 1902), p.461.
18. Patrick Lynch. ‘The place of the Guinness brewery in Irish agricultural development’ in Proceedings of the Irish malsters technical meeting April 1967 (Dublin, 1967, mimeo), p.12.
19. Return of the number of licensed distillers in Ireland, in each year, from the year 1835 to 1850, inclusive, specifying the different places where the distilleries were situate, pp 1-2. H.C. 1851 (369), 1, 659- 60. For Robinson’s bankruptcy, see notice to creditors, in King’s County Chronicle, 27 September 1848.
20. King’s County Chronicle, 11 September 1850.
21. Apparently the Banagher distillery was working in 1856 but was out of action by 1870; see Slater’s royal national commercial directory of Ireland etc. (Manchester and London. 1856), province of Leinster. p.15, and Slater’s royal national and commercial directory of Ireland etc. (Manchester and London. 1870), province of Leinster, pp 30-31.
22. Not in regular operation after 1835, see Return . . . licensed distillers, p.2
23. Registry of deeds, Dublin: see Pentland and Greene to Locke. 20 December 1839, memorial 1840-3-74; Locke to Pentland, 8 May 1841, memorial 1841 - 10- 190.
24. See minute books of the board of guardians, Tullamore union, in Offaly County Library; O.S.. printed town plan of Tullamore, 1888 (engraved, 1890).
25. During the period 1835 to 1850 it was in operation every year except 1847, see Return . . licensed distillers, p.2.
26. P.R.O.I., 5.3214: manuscript valuation of Tullamore town, 1843-v, vol. i, property number 102.
27. The records of B. Daly & Co. Ltd. are in D. E. W. L. archive, Patrick Street, Tullamore.
28. D. E. W. L. archive: copy of the will of Michael Molloy.
29. Registry of deeds, Dublin: see William Brooke as master and ors to Molloy. 8 July 1848. memorial 1848 - 17- 275.
30. D. E. W. L. archive: papers relating to the will of Anthony Molloy.

By Gavin Bowie
Industrial Arch. Review iv, winter, 1979-80, pp81-90.

Summary: This article first describes the prime movers surviving in three Irish distilleries, and shows how steam and water power were used in conjunction at two of them. The second section describes surviving stationary steam engines in other industries, and these are described in order of technological development, so giving an indication of the evolution of the stationary steam engine between about 1895 and 1940.

This article in part continues a tour of whisky distilleries of Ireland, which began with the description of the 'house-built' beam engine in Jameson's Distillery, Dublin, followed by an examination of the two McNaught compound beam engines in Power's Distillery, Dublin. Both distilleries are now closed, the former in 1969 and the latter in 1976,and all three engines are to be preserved in situ.

Traditional Irish pot still whisky was made in a way approximately similar to Scottish malt whisky, although in Ireland the grist contained ordinary as well as malted barley and the distillation cycle was more complex. After enjoying prosperity in the late nineteenth century, the Irish whisky distilling industry declined and was increasingly limited as local markets. In the early 1960's the last three working distilleries in the Republic amalgamated to form Irish Distillers Ltd, and a modern plant was subsequently established at Midleton, Co Cork.

The second section of the article describes surviving stationary steam engines in other industries, and is based on a brief survey undertaken with the help of the Royal Dublin Society in 1973-4. These engines are described as in February 1975.

The low efficiency of the external combustion reciprocating engine compared with its successor, the diesel engine, the increasing cost of fuel for the boilers, the difficulty of obtaining spare parts, and the labour intensive demands of steam engine plant, have contributed to the decline of stationary steam engines in Ireland since about 1946. There is little element of choice, or selective preservation. With regard to the following engines - rather they represent the few survivors.

Midleton, Kilbeggan and Tullamore Distilleries

At two distilleries, stationary steam engines worked in conjunction with waterwheels. Such a system was used at Midleton Distillery, Co. Cork until 1972, where two engines were on standby for a large waterwheel, but has been superseded by an electric motor drive. As Irish Distillers Ltd. are constructing a new distillery immediately upstream from the old one, the future of the old plant is in doubt, but the older of the two beam engines and the waterwheel, are currently maintained in working to order.

Prime movers were also combined at Locke's Brosna Distillery, Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, where a horizontal cross-compound engine supplemented the work of a conventional waterwheel. The Distillery closed in the early 1950s, but despite vicissitudes of time and changes of ownership, the prime movers, millhouse machinery and two mash runs remain intact within a compact structure, 'L' shaped in plan.

Daly's Tullamore Distillery, Tullamore. Co. Offaly, remains complete, but all of the old plant, for making pot still whisky, has been disused for some years. However, the owners plan to renovate the two-cylinder simple horizontal engine, and make the enginehouse safe for access to visitors.

Locke's small country distillery at Kilbeggan never produced more than 200,000 gallons pot still whisky a year, and contains little machinery that dates from later than the early 1880's. This is significant because the technology of whisky production in Ireland has altered greatly in the last fifteen years or so, whilst Locke's effectively fossilizes a process which remains unchanged for over 100 years. In fact the latest additions to the Distillery plant appear to be two mash tuns with their double stirring gear', installed in 1892. Parts of the plant represent a high standard of craftsmanship, as for example the seven oak washbacks, each 13ft diameter and 16ft deep, that were constructed by Locke's own workmen. Though disused in the early 1950s, the plant remained complete until 1966, when two Lancashire boilers were removed, and 1974 when the four copper pots stills, and the riveted copper worm cooling system, were taken out.

The distillery's external waterwheel can be seen upstream from the bridge carrying the main road over the River Brosna. It is 15ft. 6in. diameter and 11ft. wide, and has an undershot waterfeed; though long disused, it survives remarkably complete.

The internal gearing for this section of the Distillery remains intact, and shows the link-up of the waterwheel and the stationary steam engine. The wheel's axle-drive was transmitted, through you face gears outside and two inside the building to a layshaft carrying bevel gear drives for three pairs of millstones. These latter survive complete with furniture, on the loft above. The far end of the layshaft could be engaged with the main vertical millshaft, which carried the drive to machinery in all sections of the Distillery. The stationary steam engine also made a bevel gear connection, though this time via a coil clutch, with the main millshaft.

The horizontal cross-compound condensing stationary steam engine is, like the two McNaught beam engines in Powers Distillery, John's Lane, Dublin, a product of the Canal Basin Foundry, Port Dundas, Glasgow. It was erected in 1887, a year after the second of the Power's engines, and certain design features, for example the governor and its pedestal and the patent valve gear mechanism, are common to all three engines. Its two cylinders are located on two cast-iron bedframes which are separated by a central flywheel, 11ft. diameter. From the flywheel, the H.P.cylinder of 18in. bore x 3ft. stroke, is to the left and the L.P. cylinder of 28in. bore x 3 ft. stroke, to the right. The governor pedestal is located adjacent to the flywheel-end between the two sets of piston rod guide bars. The piston rod of the L.P. cylinder is continued through a stuffing box at its head-end to operate the horizontal air pump of a rectangular box-type jet condenser; this condenser is mounted on an extension of the L.P. side bedframe, making a compact arrangement. The steam engine drive shaft makes a right-angled bevel gear connection with a short length of shafting which goes through the millhouse wall to connect with the main mill gearing.

At Daly's Tullamore Distillery there is a two cylinder simple horizontal engine which has been disused for many years. It has two cast-iron bedframes each 19ft. long, and each carrying a cylinder of 20in. bore and 3ft. 10in. stroke. These are separated by a box-type jet condenser which has a horizontal air pump operated by a large crank-shaft-driven eccentric. The total width of the engine is 12ft. and the whole is mounted on granite blocks.

The 11ft. long connecting rods drive marine-type double cranks, on a built-up crankshaft supported by four angled main bearings. It is an odd feature of this engine that even at the low operating pressure of 12 p.s.i. (the existing gauge only goes up to 15 p.s.i.), where the expansive properties of the steam are negligible, expansion slide valves, worked by separate eccentrics and hand adjusted, were fitted. This type of valve gear could date from any time after the mid 1840s as it is derived from the Stephenson link motion. The two cylinders were supplied with steam by a Lancashire boiler and engine speed was controlled by a belt-driven Watt-type centrifugal governor through a butterfly valve up the main steam pipe. The drive was transmitted by the crankshaft through to the annexed mill and constant torque, maintained by a six arm. 14ft diameter flywheel. Rated at 125 I.H.P., the engine's driveshaft links with conventional underdrive gearing that is contained within cast-iron bursting on a square plan. The gearing for a set of millstones, on the floor above, is carried on either side of the bursting, and a pinion linking with the great spurwheel carries both a vertical mill drive and, via bevel gears, a horizontal lineshaft. Shafting linked with the latter works the revolving rakes in the two mash tuns, the three-throw pumps of the brewery and distillery and the distillery rowsing ???

There is a tradition that this engine was acquired second-hand from a steamship about the middle of the last century. This is an attractive theory but is unlikely to be correct: the only similar type of marine engine is the diagonal paddle steamer engine, where the cylinders are placed lengthways and are inclined upwards towards the paddle driveshaft, but this type of engine needs wrought iron frames to absorb the varying thrusts on the crankshaft whereas the cast-iron bedframes of the Tullamore engine would crack under such strain.

Although the theory that the engine originated in a paddle steamer is no longer tenable, there is still no firm evidence as to who built it and when. Lest the engine be given too early a date, it should be remembered that the simple low-pressure engine tradition remained well into the 1880s in Ireland.

Finally it should be noted that the Tullamore engine was designed not so much for economical fuel consumption as for reliability. In other words, the amount of coal used to raise steam in the boiler was less important than getting through the distilling season without a hitch or breakdown.

The principal Grain Warehouses are situated on the opposite bank of the river, in an inclosure, entered by an old-fashioned pair of gates. Here are two Grainaries of five floors each, which contained 5,000 barrels of grain, and two Drying Kilns; the sub-ground floors are used as Bonded Warehouses. The corn is here delivered and weighed before being sent to the various Corn Lofts.

In the Distillery buildings there are altogether eight Grain Lofts, and the Mill contains two pairs of stones and a set of Malt Rollers. The Grist Loft, which adjoins the Mill, is above the Mash Tun; for supplying hot water there are four coppers. The Mash Tun is of the ordinary sizc arid description, and near to it are four sets of three-throw Pumps. The six Washbacks have a capacity of 18,000 gallons each, and the Intermediate Charger is in the Still Room. In the Running Room there are five Receivers and the Safe. The Wash Charger is fixed on the roof of an annexe of the building.

The Still House contains two old Pot Stills, and adjoining there is a Spirit Store. In the yard there are thirteen Bonded Warehouses, which contained some 3,000 casks. We noticed a capital Cooperage, Stables, Engineers' and -Carpenters' Shops. Forty men are employed upon the premises.

The following is a brief description of the arrangement of the Distillery. The centre court is called the Square Yard ; the buildings on the north side are devoted to the Back House and Cooling Lofts, as also the Mill, worked by a powerful breast water-wheel, which discharges its waters over the Cooling Pipes, which are laid in the bed of the mill race, and over these pipes is the Worm Tub, fixed on an elevation of substantial stonework; those on the east, to Still House, Tun Room, Spirit Store, and Racking Room; on the west, Maltings and Kiln, Corn Floors for selected grain, Malting Steeps, and Bonded Warehouses; on the south side are Corn Stores and Bonded Warehouses.

The Whisky is produced from pure malt and grain; the annual output is 200,000 gallons, which obtains a ready sale in the principal cities and towns of Ireland and England, and shipments have been made to the Colonies.

Early the next day we left our little boycotted hotel at Tullamore, and proceeded to Kilbeggan, a drive of some eight miles. Our "turn out" would have afforded much amusement to some of our English friends, could they have seen us riding to our avocations that morning. The car, which looked like a large wine-case on wheels, was springless and sadly in need of a coat of paint; the horse was but a framework for a new edition, his tail being but a relic of the past, consisting of the stump and about half a dozen long hairs. Upon our remarking on the condition of the poor creature's caudal appendage, our jarvey exclaimed, "Shure yer honour, its a bit out of repair now, but its been a foine tail in its day." On nearing the bridge over the canal we came upon a crowd of persons evidently enjoying themselves, and remembering our experiences of the previous day, we bade our driver stop for a few minutes that we might witness the fun. To the music of a fiddle and a banjo, two Irish lads, regular "broths of boys," were dancing and shouting, and at times their movements were so infectious that some of the crowd joined in with them. An Irishman is always ready to fall into a jig, and the sound of music will generally set him off. Even our steed commenced prancing, and the six hairs in his tail were violently agitated, and kept swishing after the flies that, perhaps, were joining in the dance on his lean flanks. But we had business before us, and soon parted from the revellers, having first parted with some silver, being unable to refuse the blarney appeals of these rustic musicians.

After leaving Tullamore the road lay through a pastoral country, and linelywooded estates, Within three miles of Kilbeggan we came to Durrow Abbey, the seat of the Earl of Norbury, whose ancestor was the notorious hanging Irish judge of the same name. The late Earl was murdered in the Park, in the open day, by a yet undiscovered assassin, and since then the noble mansion has scarcely ever been inhabited by the family. We drove through the thickly wooded demesne, and soon came to the picturesque ruins of the Abbey, founded by St. Columb in 546, and the Church of Durrow, both of which adjoin the grounds of the mansion. They are situated in a most secluded spot, and the graveyard attached contains many ancient monuments, and a curiously sculptured cross, with scriptural devices thereon, which is supposed to have been brought from Iona by St. Columb, and is of a different kind of stone to any found in the neighbourhood. Near the church is a holy well dedicated to that saint. In 1186 Hugh de Lacey, while superintending the erection of a castle on the ruins of the Abbey, was killed by one of the labourers, a pious Catholic, who, indignant at the profanation of the sacred spot, struck off his master's head whilst he was stooping down to give directions.

We returned to the high road by another way, through the private grounds and along the edge of slopes, whose verdant soil was covered with the richest carpet of variegated mosses and wild flowers, canopied here and there with the spreading branches of luxuriant trees, everywhere inviting us to shelter and repose. You cannot travel many miles in this locality without passing some holy emblem or little chapel by the wayside, for the peasants hereabouts are fast and firm Catholics; and we have even seen, in some of the little hotels where we stayed, crucifixes and coloured pictures in the lobbies and passages.

A few miles further on we came to Kilbeggan, made interesting by Charles Lever, the novelist, who resided here, and many of the scenes and characters in his books are drawn from the district; notably "Con Cregan" and "Knight of Gwynne." The town is a famous and historic old place, situated about 45 miles from Dublin, on the coach road between that city and Galway. At the end of its main street, overlooking the Brusna Distillery, we came to the church, which stands in a picturesque graveyard crowded with curious old tombs. This ancient edifice occupies the site of a monastery founded by St. Becan, the contemporary of St. Columb, in the year 600; which, falling into decay, was rebuilt in the eleventh century by the family of Dalton, who dedicated it to the Blessed Virgin, and placed therein a band of Cistercian monks. After its dissolution, the monastery and its possessions were granted to the Lambart family, when a part of the monastery was enlarged, and a square tower added to it, and the building transformed into a parish church. As we descended the hill to the Distillery, our driver pointed out the place where, during the disturbances of '98, a party of the insurgents were defeated, after an obstinate resistance, by Colonel Blake, at the head of his Northumberland Militia; some of the rebels were hung in the town, and the others sent away as prisoners. The notable "Brothers Shears," who figured in the Dublin disturbances, and were afterwards executed at Newgate, came from Kilbeggan. Driving along, an extensive view presented itself: for several miles the valley of the Brosna displayed a very ocean of billowy hills, softly folded one upon another, with here and there plantations, pasture lands, and cultivated fields, through which the river flowed, looking like a silver ribbon-the whole a typical picture of the Emerald Isle. The Brosna is one of the feeders to the Grand Canal, a branch of which comes up to the town. We crossed this river, to reach the Distillery, by an old stone bridge, from the centre of which we obtained a good view of the establishment we had come to visit. In the Distillery grounds the river divides itself into two streams, forming a pretty little island of about an acre in extent, which has been utilized by one of the partners, and added to the grounds attached to his private residence.

A rustic bridge has been thrown across to the island, which is laid out in lawns, flower beds, and shady walks, and has in its centre a handsome stone fountain, always playing, supplied with water from the upper reaches of the river. Along the valley in olden times many smugglers were wont to locate, who gave a great deal of trouble to the Excise officers. At Mabrista, a secluded nook near the Distillery, formerly lived one "Mooney," who carried on his nefarious practices under the very nose of the revenue people. On one occasion a raid was about to be made upon him; Mooney, seeing in the distance the officers coming, called out to his wife to hide the three kegs of whisky in the garret. The ready-witted woman placed them in the middle of the floor, and then brought up her feather bed, which she ripped open, and completely covered the kegs. After searching all the rest of the house, the captain of the party entered the garret, and seeing nothing but a huge heap of feathers, called to his men that there was nothing in the d---d old cockloft but feathers, and it was useless to spoil their clothes by removing them.

The Brusna Distillery is said to be the oldest in Ireland, having been founded in the year 1750. It covers nearly five acres of ground, and the adjoining lands extending for half-a-mile on the river side, are also owned by John Edward and James H. Locke. Both these young men are practical distillers, and it is owing to their enterprise that the business has increased and the output been more than doubled during the last ten years. To do this they have, from time to time made considerable additions to the old work-adding new machinery and modern appliances, still retaining, where practicable, the ancient ones, so as not to interfere with their old-fashioned Pot Stills, Mashing Vessels, and method of drying malt. The establishment, which is entirely enclosed, has a frontage to the main road of 150 feet, and entered by an archway, the clerks' and Excise offices being built therein. It stands on the banks of the river from which it derives its name, and the water for both driving and mashing comes from that stream. There is such an abundant and continuous supply, that at the time of our visit Messrs. Locke & Co. were arranging to use it for an electric light power in the premises. Having plenty of time, we first rambled through the old place with the partners, and afterwards commenced our duties by inspecting the Maltings which are all built opposite the Distillery proper. They are light and well ventilated buildings of five floors, capable of holding 10,000 barrels of corn. When we were there the yard at the back was crowded with farmers' carts, laden with barley put up in home-made flax sacks of a primitive shape and nearly 6 feet in length. After inspection by the corn-buyer, the barley is hoisted to the different floors and there spread out to a depth of 3 feet, from whence, as required, it is made to fall through traps on to the Malting Floors below, each of which possesses a stone Steep. The firm make all their own malt, being of opinion that they can manufacture a finer quality than can be purchased.

We next ascended a staircase, and found ourselves on a level with the Kiln floors, both laid with wire cloth and heated by open furnaces. On leaving the Kilns, we entered the Dry Malt Stores, consisting of a three-storied stone building with slated roof, capable of storing 4,000 barrels; We then proceeded to the Raw Grain Warehouses, which will hold 15,000 barrels of barley, to which is attached a Drying Corn Kiln, floored with Worcester perforated tiles, which seem to be in great favour with the Irish distillers. After having seen all that was of interest on this side of the way, we resumed the path from which we had deviated when we left the Distillery and entered the Mill building, a solid looking structure, containing six pairs of Mill Stones and a powerful set of Malt Rollers. Following our guide, we came to the Grist Room, a lofty chamber, 130 feet long, to which the grist is delivered by elevators. Previous to reaching the Mash House, we inspected the Brewing Tanks, which are each fitted with attemperating coils, and placed at an elevation to command the Mash Tun. In the Brewing House we observed two Mash Tuns, each with a capacity of 12,000 gallons, fitted with a double-action stirring gear; the two Underbacks of timber which hold 5,000 gallons each, are placed on the paved floor of the house, and were made on the premises. Pursuing our investigations, we next visited the Tun Room, a large apartment, containing eight Washbacks, each holding from 10,000 to 14,000 gallons, also constructed by Messrs. Locke's workmen. After inspecting the Coolers, we crossed over to the Still House, a venerable building, whose outward appearance is altogether different from those we have recently visited. The first object which arrested our attention was the Wash Charger, a cast-iron vessel, placed on a gallery, holding 17,000 gallons; next the four old Pot Stills (by Miller & Co., Dublin), comprising a Wash Still, holding 10,320 gallons and 8,436 gallons; a Spirit Still, 6,170 gallons, and another 6,080 gallons. In these Stills are the revolving chains; we looked inside one that had served them for years, which was bright as a copper kettle. We have had frequent occasion to remark in the course of our lengthened tour that certain fads or customs were in use at some of the Distilleries, perhaps not very important in themselves, yet they give a character to the Whisky. Here, for instance, the same method of distillation is adopted that was used by the founders of the Distillery.

Proceeding up a few steps, we came to the Can-pit Room, situated at the rear of the Still House, which contains, besides the Safe, a Low-wines and Feints Charger, also a Feints and Spirit Receiver, holding respectively 8,000 and 4,000 gallons. Adjacent is the Spirit Store, containing the usual Spirit Vat and Casking apparatus; also a duty-paid Spirit Store, which usually contains from 25 to 30 puncheons of spirits of various ages to suit the requirements of local customers.

Passing through the quadrangle, we reached the two large Bonded Stores, excellent buildings, well ventilated, and which contained at the time of our visit over 2,000 casks of Whisky. A short distance from these Warehouses there is a large detached building, six stories high, which, until recently, was used for making the "patent oatmeal," but the increasing demand for their "make" led Messrs. Locke & Co. to abandon that business, and it is now used for Corn Stores.

Returning by another way, we passed the Spent Wash Tanks, one of them, a metal vessel, holding 14,000 gallons, erected by Ross and Walpole, of Dublin also two new Worm Tubs, by Strong and Sons, of Dublin; one of them is on a high stone archway, the other covers the roof of the Still House. Here also we saw the Boiler House, containing a Steam boiler, 32 feet long by 8 feet diameter, a Carpenters' Shop, Smithy', and Cask Shed. In the yard there is stabling for ten horses, a Cart Shed, and several cattle byres.

Seventy men are employed on the premises, the aged and infirm always being pensioned off or assisted. The make is "Old Pot Still," and principally sold in Dublin, England, and the Colonies. It is both a self and blending Whisky, and the annual output (1883-1886) was 137,200 gallons. The plant is, however, capable of making over 200,000 gallons.

Messrs. Reidy and Byrne are the chief Excise officers.

"POTEEN, GOOD LUCK TO YE, DEAR."
"They talk of the Romans of ould,
Whom, they say, in their own times were frisky;
But, trust me, to keep out the could,
The Romans at home here like whisky.
Shure, it warms both the head and the heart,
It's the soul of all readin' and writin',
It teaches both science and art,
And disposes for love or for fightin'.
Oh! poteen, good luck to ye, dear."

                         CHARLES LEVER