On popular demand, last years whiskey walk is now, even though it is only in its second year, becoming a tradition not to be missed.
“Ring-a-ring, a-rosie, as the light declines, I remember Dublin city in the rare old times. O me name it is Sean Dempsey, as Dublin as could be, Born hard and late in Pimlico in a house that ceased to be. By trade I was cooper, lost out to redundancy Like my house that fell to progress, my trade’s a memory…”
So sings the aging Liberties cooper in what is, perhaps, the most well known elegy to Dublin’s disappearing past. A cooper like Sean would have had more than a little to lament in those days. Once brimming with world famous Pot Still distilleries, Dublin’s “Golden triangle” was dealt a series of hard blows by the 20th century and the neighborhood that once convinced the world that whiskey itself was worth drinking eventually found itself without a single distillery to call its own. But even if the Dempsey house in Pimlico has ‘ceased to be,’ many of the remains from those old liberties legends are still very much in tact. From the old John’s Lane pot stills to the D. Millar coppersmiths to the disused Green Spot vaults, Dublin is littered with the physical remains of its own rich distilling history. Irish Whiskey Society member Fionnán O’Connor will be leading a small band on a well watered walking tour of our capital’s liquid history with a few glances forward at the eager distillers now looking to revive our that same urban whiskey heritage.
This tour will include the non-libertine landmarks of Dublin whiskey history. We’ll be crossing through the “Golden Triangle” of Smithfield and the Liberties, taking in everything from distilleries to malt houses and discussing topics from the roots of Dublin whiskey to its Victorian zenith to its tragic collapse with a special surprise finale planned for the finish.
