Macnas to launch city’s new Whiskey Trail

The Galway Whiskey Trail, a new initiative being launched next weekend, is encouraging locals and visitors to travel back in time to learn about Galway’s rich whiskey heritage.

Irish whiskey has experienced a renaissance recently and while many pubs have become havens for craft beer, others have embraced this traditional spirit.

A group of Galway publicans are now launching the Whiskey Trail, which will celebrate one of the city’s most famous distilleries, Persse’s.

Records show that in 1815, Connacht’s only legal whiskey distillery, ‘H.S. Persse Nun’s Island Distillery – Galway’ was positioned on Nun’s Island, at the cusp of the River Corrib. It had, its own maltings and cornstores and operated a triple distillation process.

The Nuns Island Distillery featured five warehouses, containing 5,000 casks of Persse’s Galway whiskey. The business developed and had an annual output of 400,000 gallons of whiskey.

Persse’s of Galway were one of the first Irish distillers to bottle their own miniatures in Ireland in the 19th century.

The largest employer in Galway city at the time, Persse’s played a central role in the economy of the city as well as being the leading whiskey exporter to the UK.

Persse’s Galway Whisky (sic) made headlines back in 2002 when a full size bottle turned up for sale in the UK, claiming to be the rarest bottle of whisky in the world, with a price tag of a whopping stg£100,000. It didn’t reach that target, as other bottles subsequently came to light.

Next Friday’s events to mark the launch of the Whiskey Trail will include a spectacle by Macnas Theatre Company, and a chance to meet master distillers who will be in Galway for the event.

The pubs participating in this new venture include Garavan’s, Freeney’s, Tí Neachtain, the Salt House, An Púcán, the Kings Head and the Front Door.

The event will culminate with a performance by Macnas at the Spanish Arch. The group will re-enact scenes of Persse’s Galway Whisky trading with the House of Commons of London and earlier scenes from history of Irish distillers and brewers exporting their wares mainland Europe.

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune