It is widely believed that the art of distilling was introduced to Europe by Irish missionary monks. For a long time, the valuable knowledge of distilling gradually spread through the Catholic Church and it eventually reached those beyond the strong monastery walls. Bushmills is the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery and located in Northern Ireland and it received its license in 1608.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Irish whiskey was hugely popular in Britain. In the late 1780s, a staggering 1250 distilleries existed in Ireland but most of them were not licensed. This huge number of illicit distilleries quickly forced the Irish government into action.
A new period of tax raises and a government campaign to increase awareness soon followed. In 1823, a mere 22 legal distilleries existed in Ireland and illegal distilleries had gone down in numbers to about 800.
Thanks to the Total Abstinence Movement, initiated by Theobald Mathew, the shrinking number of both legal and illegal distilleries was further reduced. The hostile movement led to an intensified competition among Irish distilleries, resulting in continued growth and increased profits for the larger distilleries at the massive expense of the smaller ones, who very often had no choice but shut down. The Powers and Jameson families, based in Dublin, were probably the most successful and they went on to continuously expand their whiskey businesses.
Despite the problems at home, by the end of the 18th Century, Irish whiskey was the leading strong spirit in Great Britain. Massive quantities were also ordered and exported to the West Indies and of course the US market.
However, the US Prohibition Act and the eventual introduction of Scotch blended whiskey were 2 major setbacks that hugely damaged the crumbling Irish whiskey industry. Irish whiskey now found it hard to compete with its Scottish counterpart and it was not able to produce the sheer volumes needed by the American market.
The large development of distillation in Scotland was the final blow to the Irish whiskey industry. Today the Irish whiskey industry holds just over 1% of the global market.