Old distillery reborn in Kilbeggan...slainté
Irish American Post Staff
 

About 20 years ago, Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan was in bad shape, with equipment dating from the 1880s in disrepair and birds roosting in the vats.  Started in 1757, Locke's was one of the oldest whiskey manufacturers in Ireland. It had a glorious heritage, with generations of local folks working there.  Subsequently, when the facility shuttered its doors in 1953, the blow to this small Midlands community was emotional as well as financial.

The complex eventually went on to house a pig farm and a Mercedes dealership...albeit not at the same time. 

   However, a committee of Kilbeggan movers and shakers met regularly to figure out what to do to keep he kids at home rather than emigrating, to pump up the town's economic base and to capitalize on the area's history to lure visitors.  Hitting on the idea of repairing and reopening the distillery as an attraction, the town spent almost eight years working hard to paint, patch and repair before opening to the public in the 1990.  The Ulster Museum provided technical assistance and offered tips in developing exhibits.

"When I first returned home some six years ago, there wasn't even a drugstore," said James Mullins, the distillery's current project manager. Mullins, who grew up in town, had been among those young folks leaving for better work opportunities elsewhere.  Lured back home by the promise of a job at Locke's by his carpenter father, he started as a mechanic repairing the disabled plant. 

Now, with the rust cleaned away and the pigeons long gone, the facility employs 30 persons during the summer season and 10 in the low season, becoming one of Westmeath's leading tourist sites. The economic spillover means that Kilbeggan has now an arcade, plus several new restaurants and accommodations catering to the Americans and Europeans who drive through the region and stop to tour the old plant.  Many of the distillery's tour guides a multi-lingual, speaking such a mix of languages as Swedish, Spanish, French and German.

Funding for the fixup came from diverse sources like as the Ireland American Fund, the Ireland Heritage Council, the Westmeath County Council and other financial angels.

"The whole idea behind the renovation was to 'give back to the locality,'" asserted Mullins.  "In the 1970s and 1980s, we had low employment, so the funders realized that a project like this would be beneficial," he pointed out. "The town is certainly more upbeat now."

Cooley Distilling purchased the Locke name and currently produces the whiskey in Dundalk.  Volunteers from tour groups can sample the smoky, light and dark varieties of whiskey sold at the old facility. "We have no problem getting volunteers," Mullins chuckled.  Yet everyone on a tour receives a miniature bottle of smooth-tasting whiskey, a fact appreciated by the tour operators whose clients love such value-added gifts.

Although the Locke plant does not actually distill whiskey on-premise anymore, all the gears grind and the waterwheel drips -- bringing to life the sounds of the old days.  "We interviewed old-timers who told how it was to work here and then incorporated their comments into our displays," Mullins explained.  Several of the current employees had grandfathers who worked at Locke's during its heyday, he added.

"America was a huge buyer of whiskey and purchased large quantities of Locke's before Prohibition," Mullins indicated, with the firm producing thousands of liters of alcohol a year, which was then aged from 10 to 15 years before hitting the shelves.  Midlands farmers provided the barley and oats, aiding in the regional economic spillover.

    However, the impact of America going dry, the worldwide Depression, a fraud inquiry in 1948 and a 1950 whiskey tax contributed to the distillery's eventual closing. But those trying times are long behind the community.

"We've prided ourselves since Day One on what has been done here.  Now it's big business for a town like Kilbeggan.  We had to work it out ourselves, with what we had," Mullins concluded, looking around proudly.

Even the ghosts who probably live in the back buildings are pleased, as well.
 
 

If You Go Locke's Distillery is open from 9 am. to 6 p.m.daily from April to October and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., November to April. For more information, Locke's Distillery Museum, Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.  Phone: 353-506-32134.