Craic Withdrawal

That's Neat Paddy No. 72

Oct 20, 2024

Hello and welcome to a new edition of That is Neat Patrick. I can confirm the Irish are on to something with all the craic they’re having. I had a relaxing two weeks where I had said craic and returned with a fresh desire to never set foot in an office again. A good vacation almost isn’t worth the mental strife of going back to work. I don’t think I set foot in a bar that opened after Canada became an independent country and you’re asking me to sit under fluorescent light for 40 hours a week? How can one have a spice bag and not send an inquiry to Engineers Ireland with regards to the validity of a Canadian Professional Engineering license within their orginization? Nontheless, here is some neat stuff.

The Golden Triangle

Dublin is a very neat city which is filled with many neat neighbourhoods. Once such neighbourhood is The Liberties in central Dublin. In the 19th century, Irish whiskey was booming with 32 distilleries in Dublin, and six in the Liberties alone. These distilleries in the Liberties, along with a little distillery in neighbouring Smithfield called Jameson, formed what was known as the Golden Triangle of whiskey. The smallest of these distillers, John Power & Son, was pumping out more barrels of whiskey than Glenlivet, the largest Scottish distiller at the time. The Golden Triangle was in a perfect location for a business, with easy access to the River Liffey (and being just outside Dublin City’s tax boundary at the time).

Having this many distilleries in a confined space was a risk. Distilling is an incredibly combustable process, and raw alcohol is incredibly flammable. In June of 1875 a fire broke out in a warehouse storing 5000 barrels of whiskey. The exact cause of the fire is unknown,but the alarm was raised at 8:30pm when pigs in nearby livestock pens began to squeal.

By 9:30pm the casks of whiskey began to burst from the heat, releasing over 1 million litres of whiskey into the streets. The stream of whiskey first stretched down Cork Street, then turned onto Ardee Street and demolished a house on Chamber Street, continuing to Mill Street where it took out a row of small houses. Thirteen people would be killed in the blaze and alcohol tsunami. All from alcohol poisoning.

Despite having 70% of the market share at the end of the 19th century, a number of factors would lead to Irish whiskey’s collapse. Ireland fighting fighting for it’s independance from the British Empire resulted in many of the world’s markets being closed to Irish whiskey, what with the sun never setting on the British Empire at the time. At the same time as the Irish Wart of Independence, another important market for the Irish distillers, the USA, decided to declare war on having a good time and enacted prohibition nationwide. Whiskey’s market share plummeted to 1% by the end of the second world war, and the majority of Irish distillers closed. In the 1970s, the only two distillers in Dublin, Jameson and Powers, decided to close their Dublin operations and merged with the Cork Distilling Company in Midleton, County Cork. While this move likely saved the industry in Ireland, there was no more distilling going on in the Golden Triangle for the first time in hundreds of years.

Luckily, Irish whiskey is experience a resurgance, and multiple distilleries have opened in the Golden Triangle in the last decade. If you want to have a very full culturally enriching day in Dublin, I would recommend what I did on my first full day in Dublin. First, go to the Book of Kells because it is very neat. Then, go to the National Gallery to look at Carravaggio’s The Taking of Christ. Next, find out that painting and your whole reason for going to the National Gallery is on loan to the gallery in Belfast. After looking at some works by van Gogh and Monet for compensation, go take a cocktail class at the new Roe & Co distillery.

Roe & Co make a very decent whiskey which I would very much recommend trying. The cocktail making experience also comes with a tasting of the whiskey, the cocktail you make, and another cocktail afterwards (this time made by an expert).

After getting the pump sufficiently primed, make your way across the street to the Guinness brewery to learn how to pour your own pint. If you tell them you are on a joint bachelor/bachelorette trip from Canada, they will give you extra pints.

At this point you are sufficiently lubricated and can feel no pain. As such, the only logical next move is the Jameson distillery in Smithfield. Despite no longer making whiskey there, they will definitely give you some if you buy a ticket. Finish your night at the Temple Bar in Temple Bar. If you don’t have the craic at any point during this day, you are the problem.