More than 2.5 million people visited brewery and distillery tourist attractions in Dublin last year.

A Gaeltacht island off Co Cork is set to become the first offshore community in the country to develop a whiskey distillery.

Powerscourt Distillery, a new venture based in the Powerscourt Estate in Co Wicklow, is seeking new funding to complete a €10m whiskey distillery. It hopes to have €5m raised in a funding round this year.

The first spirits of the newly- established Boann Distillery in Drogheda which is to create 80 jobs will flow in late 2015 marking the realisation of a €20m investment in the facility.

Might the “water of life”, a new whiskey and spirits distillery and tourism attraction, be a new presence in the West Cork town of Clonakilty’s Waterfront development?

Bill Linnane is so passionate about whiskey that he decided to take up the opportunity of a two-day course at the Whiskey Academy of Dingle Distillery. He reports below...