Distilling family brought to life in William’s book
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
At the turn of the 20th century, when Lady Augusta Gregory was making waves on the Irish literary scene, her cousins were putting their own mark on the world of distilling. Persse’s Galway Whiskey was among the most successful distilling companies in the then United Kingdom, supplying the House of Commons as well as being exported to all parts of the Empire.
The rise and fall of this family business and the story of its founders is told in Persse’s Galway Whiskey, a new book by city historian William Henry. It was originally commissioned by Paul Cunningham who had planned to revive the Persse distilling name in Galway. Although that didn’t happen, Paul encouraged William to continue with the book and it has just been published.
The Persses were an Anglo-Irish family who first came to Ireland with Cromwell in the mid-1600s, according to the most common account, although there are other versions of their origins. In any case, they made their mark on Irish life, after Dudley Persse (1625-1700) was granted 4,000 acres of land between Galway and Roscommon. The family seat was Roxborough, at Kilchreest east of Gort, and it was there that Isabella Augusta Persse, later to become Lady Gregory, was born.
Her grandfather’s brother, Henry Stratford Persse, was the man who first made waves with the whiskey which was distilled at Nuns Island in the city. The date of its establishment was recorded in Persse business documents as 1815, but historian William Henry says that’s not exactly true.
The distillery at Nuns Island had indeed been established in 1815 but it’s recorded as being founded by the Joyce family, from whom the Persses bought the operation in 1840.
By that time, Henry Stratford Persse had died. A man of many interests and with a keen social conscience, according to William, he’d predicted in the early 1800s that poverty and dependence on the potato in Ireland would lead to famine.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.