| The two gentlemen
below are engaged in distilling Poteen, an activity the origins
of which are lost in the mists  of time.
It was only after the government realized that taxing it would be
a valuable source of revenue, that the practice was driven underground,
prior to that almost everyone in the country was engaged in the
activity in one way or another.
No doubt the skill was taken across the Atlantic,
and is still practiced in places such as the Appellation mountains
in USA, as thousands of Irish men and women sought a better way
of life far from their native land
The word whiskey is derived from the Irish
uisce beatha which means 'the water of life'. In the year 1608 King
James I of England granted a distillation license to Sir Thomas
Phillips. The distillery at Bushmills Co Antrim claims to be the
oldest licensed distillery in the world. It is still possible to
lay your hands on a bottle of the 'crater' as it is sometimes called,
but you have to be trusted, the revenue men on both sides of the
border still pursue the elicit brewers as diligently as ever. It
is often said that many of the men engaged in the trade only became
proficient after spending a little time as reluctant guests of the
government.
Smuggling was once very prevalent in many
parts of Ireland, the Mourne coast of County Down was one, French
wine, brandy and tobacco, would be landed at secluded places along
the coast and taken across the mountains by horse train, along the
aptly names 'Brandy Pad' to Hilltown.
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