Whiskey galore for millionth Jameson visitor Kristina

GLASSES were raised to an American woman yesterday when she became the one millionth visitor to a popular Co Cork tourist attraction.

Kristina Lawrence, 44, from Portland, Oregon, had the surprise of her life when she was greeted by a fanfare, balloons and dozens of handshakes as she walked into the Old Midleton Distillery.

Her excellent timing landed Kristina, who works as manager with Nike, with a year's supply of Jameson whiskey.

"Guinness is my favourite drink but I like whiskey and now I can have a chaser or two," she said.

Her husband, Kevin, pointed out he would try and help her polish off the 52 bottles one for every week of the year.

The visitor centre opened in 1992. Prior to that, it was a distillery for 150 years, turning out some of Ireland's finest spirits.

Kristina and her husband were treated to a special lunch along with a number of dignitaries including John Connolly, chief executive of Irish Distillers.

"In the first year we opened, we had 376,000 visitors and within five years it increased to 100,000," Mr Connolly said. Irish Distillers has three visitor centres including Dublin and the famous Bushmills' centre in Co Antrim.

Mr Connolly said they were expecting 400,000 people to have visited by the end of 2003.