Leaving the interesting town of Monasterervan, and the kind hospitality of Mr. Cassidy, we once more entered the train, this time for Tullamore, where, on arrival, we were just in time to see a National Demonstration. A procession, headed by a band of music, came in sight, followed by a rickety jaunting car, drawn by a venerable horse, rather groggy on his legs. The animal’s harness was decorated with sprigs of evergreen, while on the car, under an arbour of the same, sat a middle-aged lady, with a pleasant air of jollity on her face, who we were informed, was an evicted martyr, just released from prison. She was followed by hundreds of nondescript vehicles, and a great crowd of sympathizers. Whilst the first band was playing “Wearin’ o’ the Green”, the second, which brought up the rear, gave us “God Bless Ould Ireland”, and although we hailed from the land of Saxon, “We were not afraid.” Indeed we enjoyed the fun immensely, and got mixed up with the crowd, feeling quite content for the time being to quaff Daly’s Whisky, so freely offered us, and were almost induced to join their ranks.

The weather was bright and sunny; so we took a drive to see the beautiful environs of the thriving town of Tullamore, and later on to visit the Distillery which we had come so far to see. It is situated in the heart of the town, on the banks of the river Clondagh, and with its buildings and grounds covers about ten acres. It was founded in the year 1829, by Mr. Michael Molloy, uncle to the present proprietor. Being planted in the midst of a fine agricultural district, the Distillery has the advantage of being supplied with home-grown corn of the finest quality. There is an unfailing supply of water from the celebrated Lough, which feeds the Grand Canal, brought from a great distance direct into the Distillery.

In olden times the town of Tullamore was called Kilbride, but it was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by the Earl of Charleville, whose beautiful estate comes right up to the town. Afterwards it was called by its present name, and later on it was the terminus of the Grand Canal, before it was extended to Shannon Harbour, which caused it to increase rapidly in prosperity and popula-tion. The town is the chief market for all kinds of agricultural produce from a large extent of surrounding country, and contains, beside the Distillery, a tobacco manufactory and several other industries. It is an assize town, and its county court-house is a fine building, in the Grecian style; near to it is the county gaol, a castellated building. The demesne of Charleville is an estate of great natural beauty and richly wooded; the mansion has all the appearance of an English baronial castle. In the park, which is beautifully laid out, there are two pretty lakes, the largest of which is studded with islands. The river Clondagh, which runs through and under the Distillery, drives a huge water-wheel which supplies the motive power. It passes through the Policies of Charleville, where, running through a deep glen overhung with trees, it forms several fine cascades, adding to the natural beauty of the park.

Not far distant from Tullamore Distillery are to be seen the ruins of a castle, built in 1326, and there are besides three small square castles of very ancient date. The district also contains several fine chalybeate springs, whose virtues were appreciated in ancient times, but arc not now in use for medicinal purposes.

But to return to our subject. The Distillery came into the hands of the present proprietor some thirty years ago, having been bequeathed to him by his uncle, and since that time Mr. Daly has not only improved and considerably extended the work, but has added new machinery and all the recently invented appliances used in distilling. The Whisky made is of the same class and make as manufactured by the noted Dublin houses, and it is not only sold and appreciated in the district, but is supplied in large quantities to England and the colonies. At the front of the Distillery, facing the main street, there is a fine residence, formerly an old manor house, occupied by Mr. Daly, when he is in Tullamore. This gentleman, however, has a fine estate at Hazelbrook, Terenure, near Dublin, where he usually resides, and where we hope to spend a few days during the ensuing summer.

The Distillery is superintended by Mr. Bernard Daly’s son, Mr. B. Mara, his nephew, and Mr. Charles Comyn, his son-in-law, but the general management is under the control of Mr. Daniel Williams.

The farmers deliver the corn to the Granaries, of which there are eight, capable of holding 60,000 barrels of grain. One of the stores has three lofts, each being 120 feet square, and capable of holding 10,000 barrels of corn. After being run through the self-acting cleaning machines, the grain is sent by elevators into four Kilns, each with open roof, and floored with patent wire flooring. These Kilns are capable of drying 1,000 barrels in each per week. The Dry Corn Lofts are attached to the Kilns.

The Mill Building contains eight pairs of stones, and the two Meal Lofts are over the two Mash Tuns, which are 24 feet in diameter and 8 feet deep, each capable of mashing 1,000 barrels weekly, so that Mr. Daly uses up 2,000 barrels, as he works a period every week. There are five sets of ponderous three-throw Pumps, and four of Morton’s Refrigerators.

In the Back House there are ten Washbacks, each with a capacity of 16,000 gallons, and in the yard which commands the Stills, a Wash Charger, a fine metal vessel, holding 17,000 gallons. Built on stone pillars, over the river, are to be seen, three Worm Tubs, very handsome vessels. The Still House is a fine open building, containing four old Pot Stills (there are no others on the premises). The following is their capacity:

  • Two Wash Stills, each holding . . 16,000 gallons
  • A Low Wines Still holding . 5,500 gallons
  • Spirit Still holding 10,500 gallons

and it may be here noted that the Whisky in this establishment undergoes three distillations. In the Running Room there is a fine Safe and Sampling Safe, a Spirit Receiver, holding 4,000 gallons, and Low Wines and Feints Receivers, capable of holding 30,000 gallons.

The Spirit Store is adjoining, and contains a Vat, holding 8,000 gallons, where the Whisky is reduced to 25 o.p., casked, branded, and delivered into the Warehouses, of which there are eleven large buildings, covering nearly five acres of ground, and containing at the time of our visit 900,000 gallons of Whisky, of various ages, principally in butts and hogsheads.

The Malting is a large department. There are four Barns, capable of malting 30,000 barrels, if necessary, with four Steeps and four large Malt Kilns, floored with perforated tiles. The Coal Yard holds 5,000 tons. Mr. Daly charters a ship, and the coal is brought in barges by the Grand Canal to the Distillery.

In the Yard are two Chimney Stacks, that for the stilling being 108 feet high, and the other, for boiling, 60 feet high.

The Grains House and Spent Wash Tanks are conveniently arranged for the farmers to fetch away without going into the Distillery.

The following is a list of the industries pursued inside the establishment. A millwright and fitter’s shop, with steam lathe and other appliances, carpenter’s shop, cooperage, &c., and it may be mentioned that a resident certificated engineer resides in a capital house on the premises, who is capable of making and fitting an engine if required. There are three very fine engines, one of them 200-horse power, and four boilers, 30 feet by 7 feet in diameter, and there are four large heating tanks, for brewing by steam.

The Whisky is Old Pot Still, and is sold all over Ireland, but principally in Dublin, whilst a large quantity goes to Liverpool, London, and Australia. We tasted some eight years old, which was so good that it reminded us of Moore’s lines:

“Never was philter found with such power
To charm and bewilder, as this we are quaffing,
The magic began, when in autumn a rich hour,
As a harvest of gold in the fields it stood laughing,
There having by nature’s enchantment been fill’d
With the balm and the bloom of the kindliest weather
This wonderful juice from its core was distilled,
To enliven such hearts as are here brought together.
And though, perhaps—but breathe it to no one—
Like caldrons the witch brews at midnight so awful,
In secret this philter was first taught to flow on,
Yet—’tisn’t less potent for being unlawful.
What, though it may taste of the smoke of that flame,
Which in silence extracted its virtue forbidden—
Fill up—there’s a fire in some hearts I could name,
Which may work too its charm, though now lawless and hidden.
So drink of the cup—for oh there’s a spell in
Its every drop ‘gainst the ills of mortality:
Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen,
Her cup was a fiction, but this is a reality.”

On the right-hand side of the main entrance are the clerks’ and general offices, and on the left those for the seven Excise gentlemen.

We were informed that no malt is purchased for this Distillery, as it is all made on the premises. The works are within ten minutes’ walk from the railway station. One hundred persons are employed, and the annual output is 270,000 gallons.

At Daly’s Tullamore Distillery there is a two-cylinder simple horizontal engine which has been discussed for many years. It has two cast-iron bed frames each 19ft long, and each carrying a cylinder of 20in bore and 3ft 10in stroke. A box-type jet condenser separates these 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 1840’s 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 on 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 about 125 I.H.P., the engine’s driveshaft links with conventional under-drive gearing that is contained within cast-iron hursting on a square plan. The gearing for a set of millstones, on the floor above, is carried on either side of the hursting, 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 gear.

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 drive-shaft, but this type of engine needs wrought iron frames to absorb the varying thrusts on the crank-shaft 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 1880’s 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.

Engine at the Guinness’ Brewery

There is a disused, small, single-cylinder horizontal, non-condensing stationery steam engine in a corner of the fourth storey of Cooks Lane Maltings, Guinness’ Brewery, Dublin. It was made by William Spence, Cork Street Foundry, Dublin, in about 1896, and is one of the very few Dublin-built engines left. It is representative of a type which was a real work-horse in industry up to the end of the 1930’s , as, simple in design and construction, it could work year after year with very little maintenance and attention. Steam was supplied at about 60 p.s.i., the valve gear consisted of a short-D slide valve worked by an eccentric, and engine speed was under the control of a Pickering governor. The latter was belt-driven from the crankshaft and operated a throttle valve on the main steam pipe. To give some idea of size, the cylinder has a bore or 12in and a stroke of 2ft 6in: the flywheel is 8ft 6in diameter. Provision is made for two belt drives from the engine. The larger drive wheel, next to the flywheel, carried a horizontal belt drive to shafting which worked all five malt intake elevators and three conveyors. The small drive wheel worked a vertical belt to the floor beneath where it operated screen and elevators.

Engine at the Dublin Laundry

Two small horizontal engines by Marshall of Gainsborough once worked all the machinery in the Dublin Laundry Co, Milltown, Dublin, but are currently operated alternately to provide part of the power of the plant. The laundry was established in 1888 on the site of a grain mill, and the former mill-race remains in use to provide some of the laundry water.

The engine-room is on the first floor of a building which is immediately adjacent to the River Dodder, and close to two Lancashire boilers. These boilers are fed on coal slack, and supply laundry steam and hot water needs. One of them was made by the Oldham Boiler Works in 1898, and is still capable of providing the engines with saturated steam at about 90 p.s.i.