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PLANNING PERMISSION HAS been granted to Sliabh Liag Distillery to build the first distillery in Donegal for 175 years.
Earlier this month An Bord Pleanála approved the application for the development, which will be built in the picturesque mountains near Carrick and include a visitor centre.
Building on the main distillery is expected to start at the end of 2017, according to James Doherty, Sliabh Liag Distillery’s chief executive.
He added it will take at least a year to build the facility and whiskey production on the site will start by the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019.
Last year, the company released a blended Irish whiskey called the Silkie, and it will release its new gin product, an Dúlamán, in the next three months after the product was distilled at a temporary premises in Carrick.
All the products the company has in production so far are named after myths, legends and tales from Irish folklore. Doherty said the company will continue to draw from these Irish roots to help give each product an authentic Irish feel.
“All the brands will be rooted in a gaeltacht legend or folk tale largely because I think there is a rich history that is not really being told around the gaeltacht,” he said.
“We also want to portray those tales in a modern light rather than something that is a bit twee to look at.”
Backing
Sliabh Liag Whiskey Distillery was co-founded by Doherty, Margaret Cunningham, James Keith and Oliver Hughes, the owner of the Porterhouse chain of pubs who passed away last July.
Doherty said the company has so far been “largely funded” by himself and the other co-founders. Údarás na Gaeltachta, the body in charge of overseeing the economic development of Irish-speaking regions, has also put money behind the project and has provided the location for the company’s temporary gin distilling facilities.
“Údarás na Gaeltachta are looking at economic and social regeneration in the Gaeltacht and trying to find new ways to help businesses incubate in the area and bring jobs,” said Doherty.
“Part of the attraction of us is I think the storytelling of the Gaeltacht fits very well with their ambition.”
Once the distillery is completed, Doherty said the company will bring 40 new jobs to the area and will hire people for operational roles in the distillery and visitor centre in addition to people to manage sales and marketing.
Comeback
The approval for planning permission for the Donegal-based distillery has come in the middle of Ireland’s recent whiskey revolution.
At the start of 2013, only four distilleries were in operation in Ireland. However, now there are 16 distilleries in production, with 13 new facilities also at the planning phase.
The Irish Whiskey Association has forecast that between 2010 and 2025 over €1 billion will be invested in distillery projects across the island. The organisation has said this significant investment will help treble the Irish whiskey tourism industry to 1.9 million visitors annually within the next decade.
However some elder statesmen in the industry have warned that many of the new distilleries planned may struggle to get off the ground and become commercially viable, particularly due to the three-year maturation time needed for a product to be sold as Irish whiskey.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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A beautiful part of our island that could do with the jobs. Well worth a visit for a few days
The reason the Irish whiskey industry is only one-tenth the size of the Scottish industry is the industry was brought mercilessly to its knees by the British Government’s Trade embargo with the new Irish Free State in the 1930s, which not only cut off their markets in England, Wales and Scotland but throughout the entire Empire as well.
Let’s remember this clearly now during the coming Brexit negotiations. Some “friend” the British were of Ireland. It is only when we joined the EU that we were able to get their foot off our necks.
@Fred Johnson: It also happened to coincide with prohibition in America, which was also very damaging.
@James Xenophon:
Yes but prohibition in America does not explain why the Scottish industry is 10 times the size of the Irish industry. The British trade embargo does.
@Fred Johnson: When Britain had an empire Scotch whisky was traded around the world including China.
This is great news and I hope that the new distillery will be successful. One thing puzzles me, employing forty people when it will probably be 2021 before we see a bottle of Donegal single malt Irish whiskey. So how will they make money in the meantime.
It says that they’re already distilling in a temporary premises provided by Údarás na G. I suppose the visitor centre will add jobs when it’s built.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: More likely buying in whiskey from another distiller and blending along with bottling using their own labels. I would rather wait to see the single malt version like Dingle are now producing.
And me on the dry
Not to worry, I’d say it’s more for export than here. Great to see Donegal getting some business started up.
Only one. Over 20 distillers started operating in Scotland last year alone .Nearly all distilling gin. If I had some spare cash I it would be first thing to invest in. Best of luck to them
@Finn Bowe: Dingle Distilleries are now producing gin, vodka and Irish whiskey.
If you haven’t tried the Gunpowder Gin made in Leitrim in Drumshanbo then find some and give it a go. Good stuff and great marketing. If you like gin and appreciate the subtleties of different variants you’ll love it. My system is bit too old and worn out for the Gin frenzy now but still can appreciate quality without being biased because it’s Leitrim and down the road. Chin Chin..
@Chris Kirk: we’ll see Chris, it’ll give us something to sample and critique at the very least :)
Great news for whiskey lovers. Considering the nature of the game, they will have to purchase some really old distillate to get going. I hope, if they are making a stock blend, that they dont go the Jameson route. Some real horrible mixes of 5 year old, 8 year old and whatever else in the Jameson blend of late. Way to many products too. Just be like “yellow spot”!
Better advice, you cannot buy….
And so is most of the polish neighbours i have.
If I want to sample a blended whiskey then I will buy it in Tesco’s for a little over twenty euro’s. A bottle of Dingle single malt whiskey will run you back 85 euros and worth every penny.
have your say