Magee, Malachy
1000 Years of Irish Whiskey

The O'Brien Press, ISBN 0-905140-71-0, GBP 5.95, First Published 1980, 144 Pages, 21,5 x 14 cm, Paperback

Authoritative, informative, enjoyable. This book examines the misty origins of uisce beatha - the "water of life" and tells the intriguing, colourful and controversial story of Irish whiskey before it earned its place as a world-renowned spirit. It is a story of passion and violence, corruption and skullduggery, of political intrigue and commercial duplicity. The illicit industry of nineteenth-century impoverished Ireland, the source of many a yarn, is remembered with affection. A section of the book deals with the most famous distilleries and the more than two-centuries-old Dublin distilling tradition.