Irish whiskey industry ‘taxed out of existence’, distiller warns - On This Day in 1926

August 21 1926Distilling is an ancient Irish industry. For many years it provided employment for a host of town and city workers and a profitable market for Irish barley-growers, who were thus in a position to pay for agricultural labour. The excellence of Irish whiskey was recognised throughout the world; an Irish distillery’s trade-mark was a guarantee of purity and good quality. So it is today; but the industry has been very nearly taxed, or super-taxed, out of existence in the country. Many circumstances have combined to compass the destruction which threatens it. “The deplorable trade conditions which prevailed during 1924-25 were accentuated during the past year”, said Mr Joseph Devlin, MP, presiding at the annual meeting of the Dublin Distilleries Company yesterday. The nation’s gre