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IRELAND’S CRAFT BEER revolution is in full swing and may have set the stage for micro-distillers to start one of their very own.
Since the introduction of an excise rebate for brewers in 2005, craft beer companies have slowly poached a larger share of the market from mass producers.
The onset of the recession curbed the brewers’ growth at first, but as the economy has recovered, consumer’s thirst for higher quality beer has seen craft brews taking an increasing share of the Irish market.
This new appetite for a premium alcoholic products has encouraged micro-distillers to try their hand at tapping into this market. Whiskey and gin distilleries have begun to pop-up across the country, with over 30 distilleries in full operation or at the planning phase.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Maria Byrne the co-founder of Mór Irish Gin said the distilling sector had a lot of reasons to be thankful to the Irish craft beer industry.
Craft beer operators have really opened the market for everybody in terms of receptiveness. Their impact has made people more open to buying premium products and getting bang for their buck.
A need to be cautious
In August last year, John Teeling, the founder of the Cooley Distillery in Co Louth, had some sharp words of warning for craft whiskey distillers. Since whiskey is required to be in a cask for three years to earn the Irish stamp of approval, he said many operators struggle to survive long enough to break even.
Gin does not fall under the same limitations, but Byrne said the number of other Irish competitors setting up means they still need air-tight financing options.
“When we thought of following through on this idea there weren’t too many others in the market. Now that we come to the point of launching, we’ve noticed there is a lot more competition in the market,” she said.
We had romantic notions that we were going to bootstrap the entire operation ourselves and through the years it didn’t work. In this business, you have to spend a lot of money before you start making money. This is why it’s so important to look at all financing options.
Advice for young entrepreneurs
After completing her commerce degree at NUI Galway, Byrne said the work she did for several large companies gave her the grounding she needed to start the business.
This is a path that some young entrepreneurs don’t always take on board since they are too keen to follow through on their ideas.
Byrne, who will be speaking at the Student Summit next week, said there are some pieces of advice they need to take on board, such as getting the right people helping you.
Absolutely make sure you have an advisor. Don’t rely on just your family and your friends. Make sure you have an impartial voice that will ask you the right questions and prompt the right responses in terms of the direction you want to take your company.
Exporting is crucial
Mór Irish Gin plan to launch their product this March. Byrne said she and her business partner Eoin Bara have big plans for 2016 that involves working towards exporting as soon as possible.
For us the main thing is to capture the Irish market, but export is where we want to go. We want to grow business as fast as we can and growing towards exporting our gin will enable us to take on new projects and experiment.
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Probably cause they havnt a clue on what blasphemy is.
‘I’d had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was, ‘That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.’
@Robert Murphy: Are there any women here today?
@Robert Murphy: You’re only making it worse for yourself!
@Daniel O’Connor: WORSE!? How could it be another worse?
@Noel Tate: dammit…. how could it be “any” worse.
@Robert Murphy: you could be stabbed?
Where’s the referendum to protect Ireland’s water and its services from privatisation, as promised?
@Clear And Graphic: who promised it? And second, have we not learned by now to keep such trivial things out of the constitution due to the problems they cause down the line?
@Clear And Graphic: That’s because FG/FF have buyers lined up around the corner for IW when the next down turn happens.
@Darren Bates: Yea, stupid me. I forgot that we must previously forget what FF/FG/Lab elected say when it comes to any voting times in particular.
@Darren Bates: Water is not trivial, you absolute clown. It’s probably the single most important thing on the planet
@Joe Phillips: exactly what I thought!
Slightly more accurate headline. Poll shows people likely to vote to remove blasphemy from constitution by 3-1 margin. Sub headline 30% don’t give a monkeys.
@Graham: Laws about promoting religious hatred would be more definitive and are badly needed to stop the sectarian attacks against Catholic community in social media like this one and the Irish Times comments
@Tom Molloy: “Sectarian attacks against Catholics” ? I can see that you might wish to retain the “offence” of blasphemy. I’m more a supporter of free speech. Criticism of the Catholic Church, given its history of authoritarianism, oppression and child abuse is entirely valid. Certainly other institutions and churches are also guilty of such misbehaviour. But the Catholic Church had a unique role to play In the evolution of modern Ireland. You may feel that the scales of criticism are somewhat unbalanced given that the Church has also done good work in many spheres. However, much of the abuse is relatively recent and the scale and nature of it is shocking. You will have to await the judgement of history, some decades down the road, if you want a more balanced picture to emerge.
@Tom Molloy: Awww. Poor persecuted whingey Catholic. Turn the other cheek. It’s in the manual. Look it up.
@John R: Very well said
@John R: Have a look at “recent” weekly media “breaking news” items. Philadelphia numbers were created by adding SEVENTY years of cases to create the sensational 1000 figure without mentioning that the annual number of abuse cases in their population of 3.2 million is 21000 12 of which were clerical abuse. Similar with the latest Chile story which was 150 cases over a period of 58 years in a country where the UN reports that up to half of children’s residents mistreated or abused. Even one child being abused is a tragedy.
@Martin Meyler: I also read the Koran.
@Tom Molloy: If even one child abused is a tragedy then why are you so desperate to minimise the numbers and make sure everyone knows it was ONLY
@ihcalaM: *ONLY 1000 in 70 odd years? As if that’s some sort of low number?
@ihcalaM: No, 1000 tragedies amongst hundreds of thousands of tragedies each one destructive for the individual victim.
@John R: the abuse by the church of minors is not a recent phenomena. There is historical evidence of it going back centuries.
@Graham: thanks be to jasus….
@Tom Molloy: So what? I read fantasy novels like Lord of The Rings. I don’t base my actions or philosophy on them. Because, like your Koran and Gospels, and Vedas and Book of Mormon, they’re FANTASY.
They haven’t been told whether voting to remove it is a sin or not.
The bishop of Elphin needs to pronounce on it.
How much is this referendum costing the taxpayer? Money better spent on health system I’d think.
@mike: 3 million was the figure I heard.
@mike: You’re voting for the next president at the same time to save money. But the question is, what is it costing us to keep that offence in the Constitution? Not talking about money here…
Bréad and circuses, non privation of Irish water anybody, no? I thought so.
@genejeanie: exactly!
Flying home from Indonesia now where they use these lunatic laws regularly. In Nigeria they send Atheists to psychiatric hospitals. Can’t understand why anybody in their right mind would want to keep this uncivilised piece of legislation. Ireland needs to send a clear message that punishing blasphemy has no place among countries that are not run by savage barbarians.
@Cyril Butler: Indonesia? C’mere, isn’t that the country where ya face a two year prison sentence for just having a w**k in the privacy of your own home?
I am outraged and ashamed to be Irish today.
Can anyone tell me why Irish women are in favour of keeping this outdated and oppressive law in our constitution?
It beggars belief
@Bernie Roche: Irish women aren’t in favor of keeping this outdated piece of legislation in our constitution.
The article stats that 49% want to repeal it, a third 33% don’t know so that leaves 18% against it?
@Jayme Mc Goldrick: Less than 50pc want it removed. If it was left to the women of this country we’d be stuck with this outdated nonsense.
Thankfully they have the men of Ireland to chat a bit of sense into them.
@Bernie Roche: then f#ck off.
@Commentimum: Ha ha ha. Cheers. I take it you’re one of the ones in favour of keeping it?
@Bernie Roche: ha ha ha. It’s your outrage and shame that’s hilarious. Me telling you to jog on with it has nothing to do with how I feel about. Outrage and shame!!! Is this the height of your gripe?
@Commentimum: Are you proud of the fact that the women of Ireland don’t see the sense in getting rid of this outdated and oppressive law?
@Bernie Roche: that’s not really the correct way to read these numbers. Of the 33% who “don’t know”, there are probably women (and men) who just don’t understand what this line in our constitution actually is.
If this poll is correct and public opinion doesn’t change between now and the referendum, you’d expect 70%+ vote to remove it. With men and women both within a few % of each other.
This is already a landslide victory for those who want to remove pointless laws from our constitution and move on with the 21st century.
To say most Irish women want to keep this law is just incorrect.
Also. You shouldn’t feel so poorly about your own country based on a poll run for a TV show. We’re a great bunch, really! :)
@Noel Tate: I don’t think it’s that difficult a concept to grasp to be honest, especially with Google and all that these days.
Are you saying the women of Ireland don’t have the mental capacity to figure this one out?
Outrageous!
Last person charged with blasphemy was 1855. What an inexcusable waste of taxpayers money’s
@techman: I wonder what his punishment was, was it Bell, Book and Candle. ?
@techman: not really the point. Having this in the constitution always opens the possibility of it being used against the people.
Also, a few high profile court cases which get appealed up and up again could end up costing a lot more than this referendum will. By having it on the same day as an election they will already be keeping the cost down.
Also, IMO it is a very small price to pay for removing such a barbaric rule from our constitution which no longer reflects who the Irish people are.
Jesus Christ just make up God dam minds
Lol
A significant number of people don’t give a toss about this sillyness, are we trying to win an award for the most amount of referendums in a single year. Can’t with just ignore this stupid part of the constitution , the courts do or better still just delete it.
@Joseph Dempsey: delete it is exactly what they are trying to do. That needs a referendum
@Joseph Dempsey: It needs to be dealth with , there are others who will be quick enough to use it when it suits their purpose.
@Joseph Dempsey: In Ireland to change or remove any part of the constitution requires a referendum of the people.
So “just deleting it” is exactly what they are trying to do and doing it in the lowest effort way possible by holding it on the same date as an election. That way it costs far less and also ensures a relatively high turnout.
Run a Referendum on “Family Home” at same time and upgrade the Irish Constitution to German quality. No housing crises or bubbles in Germany.
https://www.change.org/p/housing-crisis-referendum-on-family-homes
Doesnt matter how anyone votes. It’s just this government trying to look usefull, having abmisally failed to deal with all manor issues affecting people’s lives.
When is this referendum?
@Will Flynn: I believe it’s intended to take place alongside the Presidential election.
Jasus!
@Ronan Skelly: Christ almighty!
@Noel Tate: ooh oooooh, I’m tellll-ing.
@Ronan Skelly: Blasphemy. Stoneing is too good for you.
Since ‘blasphemy’ is an authoritarian control mechanism – ban it for that reason!!
Since ‘blasphemy’ is used by ALL religions, and all religions make different claims against each other – then there is no logic to ‘blasphemy – Ban it!!
Since all religions cannot prove their claims of their gods – Ban blasphemy and Ban the religions for lying, fraud and child abuse !!!
Why can’t we vote online, what an effort for something nonsensical.
@Orla Cunningham: because it would cost us €500million to set up, once all the parasites had got their cut. Then once you’d counted the votes from Moscow, Pyongyang and Lagos, you’d find that 16 million votes had been cast.
@Orla Cunningham: You’re voting for the president the same day
F- ing rediculous referendum.
How about a referendum on euthanasia?
And pronto. We’ve had referendum’s on gay marriage, now a referendum to do with slagging a guy were not sure ever existed, neither of which caused anyone any pain, and would have both been well down my list of essential topics to be put to a vote. Cop the fek on.
Ridiculous waste of money…when was the last time someone was arrested and convicted of blasphemy. More important things to spend 3mil on
ah sure the whole thing is a farce , the last FF govt that handled blasphemy could have easily been smart and just put silly levels of fines like 5c onto the law books as a workaround and then the whole thing could have gone away and not needed costly referendums wasting our time and money , but no we have to be bloody Irish and halfarse the hell outa something thats just a distraction from all the real issues and problems facing the country…
Sweet Jesus. Bring back witch burning and stoneing. Christ is nothing sacred anymore.
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