Whiskey Appreciation Society going from strength to strength

Whiskey is having a renaissance in Ireland and one public house in Navan is embracing this spirit and started its own club.

Bermingham's Whiskey Society offers enthusiasts the opportunity to sample the best whiskey Ireland has to offer while learning about how it is produced from an expert in the field.

The bar based on Ludlow Street that boasts its own legacy in liquor has hosted local distillers like Boann and Slane as well as the world famous Midleton and Dingle and with plans to expand the society further, it seems like the best is till to come.

“We started in Bermingham’s June 2022 and we have been going every month for two years,” said society member Paddy Stapleton who also lends a hand organising the events.

“We’ve had some of the best whiskey in the country come to us through master distillers and blenders, there is a real burgeoning whiskey scene in the town, he added.

“It’s cool again, it’s the most Irish of things, it goes back hundreds of years, it’s part of who we are.

“All the pubs in Navan have extended their whiskey collection, the demand is huge at the moment.”

“It’s a concept that suits Bermingham's and we hold the events in the parlour room or the beer garden,” added landlord, Paddy Donnelly

“The previous owner had a fantastic collection that I have inherited that came with the pub when I bought it so there was a great head start, I just had to improve on it.”

In exchange for a €20 ticket, members receive five or six whiskeys to try while a whiskey producer or brand ambassador comes to talk guests through each one and how you can distinguish one from the other.

“You have your basic differences, you have your grain whiskey, single pot still, single malt and they all have subtle differences, the more you drink the more you get to know the differences,” said Paddy Stapleton.

The notion of a whiskey appreciation group just 15 years ago would have been inconceivable given that Ireland had just three distilleries to its name, however today the industry is thriving.

“We are only figuring out now how important whiskey was around 120 years ago and on how large of a scale we produced it back then to the point that we were the biggest producer in the world but that all died away and it nearly became extinct,” said Bermingham's proprietor, Paddy Donnelly.

“I have no doubt we will actually get back there to where we were,” he added.

“If trends continue I think production will bring us back to being one of the biggest if not the biggest producers of whiskey in the world.”

“We have 50 distillers in Ireland at the moment, if you go back 14 years we had only three and that doesn’t include blenders, you have lots of bespoke businesses popping up and are blending whiskey that is distilled elsewhere. Their art is knowing how to mix certain types of whiskey together.”

Navan has its own connection to the spirit as Paddy Stapleton explains:

“There were two or two distilleries in Navan, what you needed for whiskey was water and grain so there was a couple of mills on the River Boyne that were milling grains for flour. Irish Whiskey was the only whiskey ever served in the Vatican, Queen Victoria was a fan of Irish Whiskey but then prohibition came along and wiped it out. It’s only in recent decades that is has come back.”

The next Bermingham's Whiskey Society gathering takes place on September 26th when the group will welcome a master distiller from Slane Whiskey.