Revealed: why Races punter forked out €2,000 on whiskey

The punter who forked out almost €2,000 for two glasses of whiskey during the Galway Races had just scooped €1,000 on an online bet.

The native of Connemara who works overseas had arrived into Galway late on the Wednesday evening to meet up with his best friend for a few drinks.

They arrived into Sonny Molloy’s – or the Front Door as it is better known – on High Street at 1.30am and there was only one thing on his mind.

“He’s a big fan of whiskey, he’d always wanted to try this rare whiskey and knew it was the only pub in Ireland which sold it by the glass,” his friend told the Galway City Tribune on condition of anonymity.

“He had a few pound in his back pocket after winning €1,000 in an online bet and he decided to run with it. He was in a celebratory mood. I spent 20 minutes trying to talk him out of it, but he was set on it.

“They’ll only sell two glasses of it, so he said who better to drink one with than his best mate.”

His mate was keen to stress that this whiskey lover worked hard, gave a lot of money quietly to charity and was in no way “an arrogant bollocks”.

Barman Declan Thorton at first did not believe the well-dressed customers were serious in their request for two glasses of the Midleton Pearl Very Rare 30th Anniversary whiskey – at €995 per glass.

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