Drink and Drunkness
By
Who Drank What
The dreadful drunkness, which prevailed, must be acknowledged to have belonged far more to the landlord and labouring classes than to the merchants, although it is evident that even among these there was too much drinking. The sleek faces and fat figures of the portraits of the century speak of much meat and drink. Many of them could drink their six bottles. Sir Walter Besant surveying the age asks: "Is there a man now living who could drink his six, or even his three, bottles of port?" Whiskey remained the Galway drink, morning, noon and night. Porter and stout came into popularity as the century went on. Throughout the country an average of 2,800 stills a year were seized, but the Commissioners of the Revenue were afraid that not one in fifty of those operating were seized. Poteen was preferred to "Parliament" whiskey. On the whole, it was free from adulteration, and had a smoky flavour which many drinkers liked. The distilling was carried out in cellars and yards in the town, and to a great extent openly. When caught, the £50 fine levied on the landlord was halved by the distillers who carried on the trade.
The Irish Parliament took off all taxes on beer with a view to the discouragement of spirit drinking. There were several breweries in Galway, the most extensive being at Newcastle, where a pale ale was brewed, "that is much liked by many people". The price of porter in 1792 to the retailer was £1 17s. per cask and a deposit of 16/3 had to be paid on the cask. Discount reduced the price to £1 13s. od.
Unlicensed Stills
There were a few licensed distillers in the county, but none of them were at work in 1820 according to Dutton. In spite of the exertions of the excise officers unlicensed stills abounded. Dutton claims "that the unlicensed distillers added considerable quantities of vitriol, soap, etc., and set all the bad taste down to the account of malt dried with turf. "I understand", he adds "in Connemara, where whiskey is the staple, it is distilled from barley malt, or at least barley brought generally from the coast of the County of Clare, and that they never use vitriol; certainly the best I ever tasted was in that country; it was nearly without any taste of smoke, and comparatively mild, though just taken from the still; that kept for two years was excellent".
"The subject of poteen whiskey" writes Salaman in History and Social Influence of the Potato, "has more than a passing interest for, contrary to the general belief that it is manufactured from barley and malt, some at least in recent times, is and doubtless in the eighteenth century also was, distilled from potatoes. One may assume that in the poverty-stricken countryside of the period, the potato would have been used in preference to corn... The procedure is to expose medium-sized tubers to frost over several nights, then cut them into slices, soak in water indoors fro ten days with occasional stirring, strain the liquor off and add yeast. The 'wash' as it is now termed, is allowed to ferment; after an adequate time, it is carefully distilled without being allowed to boil. I owe this authentic recipe to a late very distinguished Irish friend, who obtained it direct from an exponent of the art".
Again Dutton remarks; "it has been computed that in Ireland there is consumed, of licensed and unlicensed whiskey, 3,650,000 gallons in the year; of this quantity of considerable share is drank in Connemara, where it is much the custom for all the neighbours to attend when a still is run off, and never quit the house until all is consumed, and another batch announced. The distillation of spirits from malt, was first practised in Ireland about the year 1590. Previous to this, a spirit was imported from France and England called aqua vitae, and from thence our whiskey was called Uisgebeatha, the water of life. The Irish had formerly a liquor called Piment, composed of wine, honey, cinnamon, ginger, and other aromatics, which was called by foreigners Irish rectar, and was highly prized by them".
Imported processes in the distillation of whiskey were introduced by various Scottish distillers who had settled in Ireland. The benefits arising out of the increased employment given by the increase distillation were more than outweighed by the pernicious effects of the growth of drinking. "Everything", wrote O'Driscoll, in Views of Ireland, was favourable to the growth of this manufacture; the very dissoluteness of the people - the very villainies of the tradesman - all the habits and propensities which would have choked and destroyed any other manufacture nourished and promoted this. Accordingly under all the weight and discouragement of a burdensome and unsteady excise, the manufacture has attained a height of towering prosperity, and created for itself a plenteous and splendid capital, and now, in the day of its triumph it feeds and fosters those vices from which it drew its early aliment".
Wakefield, in An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political 1812, affirmed that "Illicit stills afford a striking proof that a branch of industry may be extended and flourish without the aid of premiums. I am convinced that, whatever penal laws or regulations may be made, it is almost impossible to extirpate illicit distilleries from the truth, that they are erected in the kitchens of baronets and in the stables of clergymen. The mountains are covered with them, and they are to be met with in the very last place where an English excise officer would expect to discover them". Far more 'Queen's' spirit than 'King's' spirit was sold in County Galway. According to Wakefield "the law which imposes a fine of £50 on the townland, parish, or county according to circumstances, on the discovery of an illicit still at work therein, instead of answering the purpose for which it was intended, has produced a contrary effect, and acted as an encouragement to the erection of new ones. Many a still which was purchased originally for three guineas has been sold when burned out, for £50. Had a reward been offered to the parish officers for the discovery of stills, instead of subjecting them to a fine for one taken within their jurisdiction, they would have been as anxious to search for them, as they are now careful to conceal them from the officers of the revenue. It is a well known fact that the latter receive a more regular rent while the still is at work, than any landlord does for his land, and they often divide with the proprietor half the value of its sale by the receipt of the fine".
Revenue Police
O'Brien, in The Economic History of Ireland from the Union to the Famine, writes: "The whole system of fining the district was abolished in 1819, and three years later a revenue police was established. The force was distributed in parties, each to watch a separate district. The number of parties in 1826 was 32, in1833 was 57, and in 1838 was 70: but in spite of very great exertions, they succeeded only in partially suppressing illicitly distillation". Revenue police stations were established in Galway, Tuam, Oughterard, Clifden and Roundstone. The empty pigsties that the traveller occasionally comes across throughout Connemara, some of them of archaic construction, testify to the importance of the use that must have been made of the waste products of poteen making in the feeding of pigs.