State papers: Bushmills asked Government for help after US boycott over discrimination claims

The boycott of Bushmills whiskey in San Francisco had been organised by the United Irish Societies in early 1996 in protest over the company’s distillery appearing to have unchanged hiring practises despite 23 years of “so-called, fair employment legislation”. 

A boycott of Bushmills whiskey in the US over alleged sectarian employment practices forced Irish Distillers to seek assistance from the Irish government in the mid-1990s.

Newly-released State papers show the leading drinks company was highly concerned between 1996 and 1997 about a boycott that had been organised of Bushmills in the San Francisco region over claims of discrimination against the hiring of Catholic workers at its distillery in Bushmills, Co. Antrim.

The company’s chairperson, Richard Burrows, wrote to the Government to express how he was “very concerned” about the situation.

“The San Francisco market is an extremely important one for Bushmills and the loss of business there could be serious,” said Mr Burrows.

The files also show that a few months later, a Democratic Unionist Party mayor also mounted a ban on the Bushmills brand over the company’s sponsorship of a GAA team in Northern Ireland.

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The boycott of the whiskey in San Francisco had been organised by the United Irish Societies in early 1996 in protest over the company’s distillery appearing to have unchanged hiring practises despite 23 years of “so-called, fair employment legislation”. 

The group pointed out that there were less than 10 Catholic employees among a workforce of 110 staff in Bushmills at the time.

A local SDLP councillor, John Dallat, had informed an official in the Department of Foreign Affairs Anglo-Irish division that Bushmills was “traditionally regarded locally as a company which exclusively employed Protestants.” However, it was noted that Catholic attitudes in the area to the firm had changed after it had been purchased by Irish Distillers.

Files show the Department of Foreign Affairs was anxious to determine if “Republican elements” were involved in escalating the boycott in San Francisco and whether some Irish-Americans involved in the protest had links to Noraid – an organisation known to raise funds for the IRA.

In correspondence, Mr Burrows said Irish Distillers accepted that its workforce was “skewed” towards the Protestant community but stressed that the company was making efforts to redress the imbalance albeit with limited success due to low staff turnover at the distillery in Bushmills.

He claimed the company had better success with employment at the Bushmills visitor centre because their work there was largely seasonal.

The files show an invitation to one of the organisers of the San Francisco protest to visit Bushmills by Irish Distillers was met with opposition by other members of the group who engaged in what was described as “a nasty whispering campaign” to ensure the boycott remained in place.

Irish Distillers faced another sectarian issue around the same time when the DUP mayor for North Down, Ruby Cooling, banned Bushmills from her office because the brand had signed a sponsorship deal with the GAA with the possibility that other unionist mayors would also join in the protest.