Whiskey and publicans agreementsa fascinating history

Historic agreements between distillers and Irish publicans buying Irish whiskey in bulk in the rst half of the 20th Century were unearthed recently as part of Irish Distillers’ partnership with family history researcher Ancestry.

e agreements hark back to the days when publicans bought whiskey in bulk here in the rst (and a good deal of the second) half of the 20th Century.

Over 50 years of historical Publicans’ Agreements with John Jameson & Son came to light, comprising 37 digitised volumes. ese agreements contain around 1,500 individual contracts between the publicans and Jameson.

In those days distilleries used to sell product by the barrel to publicans, with Jameson’s Bow Steet Distillery supplying labels to publicans who’d then bottle the whiskey in-house, adding their name to the label.

To ensure that the whiskey was not tampered with in any way before reaching the customer, publicans were required to sign an annual legal agreement which had to be witnessed - and often signed - by a customer on the premises.

e records contain the name and address not only of every publican who purchased Jameson in bulk at that time, but also the name and occupation of the aforementioned witness, thus providing a unique insight into the role of the Irish pub in the community at that time.

“For centuries, the Irish public house has been an integral part of Irish social culture – a place in the centre of the community in which to meet and socialise,” said Carol Quinn, head of Archives at Irish Distillers. “ rough the digitisation of these records, we’ve created a unique information source that can be used to document the Irish pub in its heyday. We now understand

Blooming hard work

Over 100 food and drinks producers laid out their stalls at this year’s Bloom in the Phoenix Park. e ve-day sunsoaked event saw some 760 exhibitors partaking in this annual event which was attended by over 100,000 people and organised by Bord Bia.

Setting up the event required 3,800 people working onsite over the ve that there has been a serious decline in the number of pubs in Ireland which is why these records are even more important as they provide a socio-economic history of a vanished Ireland.

“ e records, which cover every county in Ireland, are fantastic for genealogy purposes because in addition to the publican details, you’ve the details of the witnesses and given the role of the pub at this time, this could have been anyone from within the local community – a local farmer, doctor, a chemist’s assistant and even a harness-maker pops up!” she added. e whiskey was delivered to the pub by the hogshead or cask. While the whiskey was put into bottle for a pub’s o -sales, the whole distilling, warehousing and delivery was done without the whiskey touching glass at any point up to then. Indeed, the rst time whiskey would have touched glass would have been in the pub itself when the barman poured it from the three-gallon barrel on the gantry into a glass for the customer.

Hedigan’s Brian Boru House Hedigan’s Brian Boru pub in Glasnevin in Dublin was established in 1840 and claims to have been the last pub to bottle and serve its own whiskey from the wood.

Patrick Hedigan bought the iconic pub in 1904 and Patrick’s nephew John took it over in 1939. Present proprietor Michael Hedigan is John’s son and he’s worked in the pub since 1962 when he was but a young lad.

He remembers running out of the last batch of Powers Whiskey at the end of November 1973.

Before then, the bottling side of the process required Michael to apply three separate labels to each of the bottle sizes which ranged from the 70cl bottle through the half-bottle and the naggin right down to the baby bottle. ese bottles had to have a cork applied which was then covered with a ‘capsule’ (which was itself then tied with string) and the three separate labels then applied. e diluted spirit was then left to settle for a day or two before Michael would test it again to ensure that it remained at the correct proof. To ensure consistency he’d also check the colour against the colour out of the vat already in use. days while taking it all down again took the organisers some 14 days after closing time.

It was here that the barrel-proof liquor was tested with a view to reducing its proof down to “30 under” (proof): 70 proof (35% ABV) by the addition of water.

Michael well remembers too, the arduous procedure of emptying the hogshead whisky barrel by hand - pump into a vegallon jug 12 times, each time carrying the hefty jug on his shoulder to one of the pub’s two huge 250-gallon vats set on stillions in the whiskey store, adding in the water and colouring (to give it its distinctive colour) before ‘tossing’ it all to mix thoroughly.

Every Monday morning he’d ll the three-gallon barrels on the backbar from the vat in the cellar and re- ll them as necessary during the week.

As has become customary the Bloom Inn hosted the country’s craft brewers and distillers who didn’t disappoint the thirsty sun-worshippers who were able to slake their parched throats with some ne ales and spirits. n

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