(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 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:
|
Distiller |
Output |
% of national output |
|---|---|---|
|
Robert Robinson, Birr |
70,252 |
0.759 |
|
Michael Hackett, Birr |
65,349 |
0.709 |
|
Robert Mitchell, Kilcormac |
34,940 |
0.377 |
|
Thomas Manley, Tullamore |
29,864 |
0.322 |
|
Kernan Molloy, Banagher |
22,439 |
0.242 |
|
Michael Molloy, Tullamore |
20,635 |
0.223 |
|
Offaly distillers |
243,479 |
2.632 |
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