The first distillery to be built on an Irish island in modern times is nearing completion and those behind it have already trademarked the gin and whiskey it will produce.

The bosses of a company whose burgeoning global reputation has attracted clients such as Disney, PayPal, eBay, and Spotify have been named as Cork’s Tech Persons of the Year by their peers.

A programme that sees new graduates and those with no tech experience trained for free by one of Ireland’s best-known IT companies could soon be introduced around the country because of its success in Cork.