B'fhearr liom hÉireann uisce beatha! (I'd prefer Irish whiskey!)

There is more to Ireland than rolling green hills, leprechauns, and Guinness. Sure, there's plenty of that, but one thing the Irish love almost as much as anything else is their whiskey. And apparently so does everyone else. In first six months of 2012, Irish whiskey outsold single malt Scotch on the US market for the first time since the 1930s. Jameson has recently ranked amongst the top 30 of the world’s biggest selling drink brands, as well as been the world’s fastest growing drink brand, with a sales increase of 750% since the late 1980’s.

Ireland has a rich history of whiskey distilling. So rich is it that the Irish actually taught the Scots how to do it.

Is this a shitty map?...probably 'cause I made it

Currently, there are only three distilleries in Ireland that are operational. They are:

Old Bushmills Distillery (the oldest licensed distillery in the world, est. 1784, owned by Diageo since 2005) – producing all Old Bushmills, Black Bush, 1608, Bushmills 10yr, 12yr, 16yr and 21 yr old single malts
Cooley Distillery (converted from a potato alcohol plant in 1987, owned by Beam since 2011) – producing Connemara, Michael Collins, Tyrconnell.
New Midleton Distillery (est. 1975, owned by Pernod Ricard since 1988) – producing Jamesons, Powers, Paddy, Midleton, Redbreast, and others, including the independently sold rarity Green Spot

The other distilleries are either too small for profitable production purposes or still under construction. They are:

Alltech Craft Distillery (est. 2012) – has not yet had time to age its spirits for sale as whiskey.
Dingle Distillery (est. 2012) – has not yet had time to age its spirits for sale as whiskey.
Kilbeggan Distillery (est. 2007, owned by Beam since 2011)
West Cork Distillers (est. 2008 in Union Hall, Cork)
Tullamore Dew Distillery (opening 2014) - A distillery with an annual capacity of 1.5 million cases per year currently under construction.

Is is Whisky or Whiskey?

The spelling of whisky, or whiskey, differs geographically. As a rule, American and Irish prefer ‘whiskey’ and the Scots, Canadians and the rest of the world’s single malt makers prefer ‘whisky’. This originated during the 19th century. For in around 1870, Scotch whisky was of very low quality, much of it being distilled poorly in Coffey stills. For exportation to America, the Irish distillers wanted to differentiate their product from the poorer Scotch whisky, thus they added the ‘e’ to mark the crucial distinction. Today, Scotch whisky has become one of the world’s greatest spirits, but the spelling still differs. On mass, Americans still spell their spirit with an ‘e’, though legally it is spelt ‘whisky’. A few distillers, Maker’s Mark and George Dickel for example, prefer the Scottish spelling, this is to be attributed to their Scottish ancestry.