Ice, ice baby: poitín gets a cool makeover

The much-maligned spirit is in line for an overhaul. Jonathan deBurca Butler had a go with the cocktail shaker

THE Dublin Bar Academy is a sleek, gallery-like space on Francis Street. Its clean and modern setting is a far cry from the dark mountain shebeens and dingy stills traditionally associated with the drink I have come here to sample and make cocktails from tonight. Poitín is Ireland’s oldest spirit, having been distilled from as early as the 6th century. It is also probably its most notorious.

“Although much of it is fairly recent, it’s had a bit of a bad rap down the years,” says Domhnall O’Gallachoir of Glendalough Poitín. “Because peasants could make and sell poitín, it gave them a bit of independence from their landlords which the Crown didn’t like. So in the 17th century they gave licences to the people they wanted to and kept others out. That meant that many producers went underground and of course, governments, whether they were Irish or British, didn’t get any revenue from it, so they basically tried to slate it.”