By J. Herbert Silverman

The Irish have a unique way of recalling past glories. They create whiskey, proceed to brew beer and then name the results after glorious battles, famous men and enduring castles. 

Following tradition, one should raise a glass of Irish whiskey (uisce beatha or water of life) or down a pint of stout during celebrations of St. Patrick's Day. But then learn something more about Ireland's mostly unsung heroes by investigating the lives of the colorful personalities behind the founders' names. 

Example, According to Irish whiskey lore, monks learned the art of distillation from missionaries who had served in the Middle East where they had been busily engaged in spreading Christianity to the infidel. Along with those pioneers it was said that St. Patrick deserves some of the credit for spreading the distilling technique.

Never a saint but a mere bishop, Patrick was antedated by one of Ireland's greatest heroes, Brian Boru, the High King of Eire, whose memory is preserved today by newcomer Boru Vodka, a five-times distilled premium spirit from Dublin.

That legendary hero led the Irish to defeat Viking invaders in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf a monumental victory which unified Ireland 1000 years ago and also became another proud piece of Irish history. This unforgettable battle was honored centuries later in the form of a spirit named called Clontarf Irish Whiskey. 

The Battle of Clontarf (Cath Chluana Tarbh) took place on Good Friday, 1014, (April 23) between the forces of Brian Boru and those led by the King of Leinster, Máel Mórda mac Murchada: mainly his own men as well as Viking mercenaries from Dublin and the Orkney Islands led by his cousin Sigtrygg, It ended in a rout of the Máel Mórda's forces, along with the death of Brian, who was killed by a few Norsemen who were fleeing the battle and stumbled upon his tent.

In their debacle, the Vikings would turn to England and Scotland, eventually taking power when Canute the Great was installed as King in 1015. 

"We named our super-premium vodkas as a tribute to Brian Boru," said distillery spokesperson Roseann Sessa. She added patriotically, "His bold attitude and uncompromising spirit are attributes that underscore our own brand profiles," 

Over the centuries, myth has been replaced by real people. Ireland's contribution to man's well being got off to a flying start in 1608 when Sir Thomas Phillips, the king;'s deputy at the plantation of Ulster, was granted the world's first license to distill whiskey by James 1.

He chose a site in the tiny village of Bushmills along the waters of St. Columb's Rill between Tara, the ancient royal capital of Ireland, and Dunseverick, a great pre-Christian fortress on the River Bush. By coincidence, Sir Thomas happened to be the local licensing authority in Co. Antrim.

n 1780, one John Jameson arrived in Ireland to start up a distillery on Bow Street Dublin thus creating an infusion of Highland expertise. His career was aided by his marriage to Margaret Haig, a member of the illustrious Scots whisky family. 

"Old John," as he was known, created not only a majestic brand but also generations of Jamesons to come with his progeny of 16 children Proof positive of the family's social position is the extensive listing today in the annals of Burke's Irish Family Record, the closest thing there is to a blue book of Irish high society.

James Power, an innkeeper from Dublin established his John's Lane Distillery in 1791. At the turn of the 19th century, James' son John joined the business, and the company ultimately became known as John Power & Son.

By 1823, with the help of a 500-gallon still, the annual output had grown to 33,000 gallons. A decade later, this had increased tenfold to approximately 330,000 gallons per annum. As the distillery grew so, too, did the stature of the family. John Power was knighted and later made High Sheriff of Dublin. 

Power is known for two innovations. In 1866, the distiller began bottling its own whiskey, Until then, distilleries usually sold whiskey by the cask. A gold label adorned each bottle and it was from these that the whiskey got the name Powers Gold Label. 

James Power's son achieved a kind of immortality in the world of drinking by inventing the "miniature" whiskey bottle, calling it the "Baby Power." The concept of the miniature was simplicity itself. John Power reasoned that Irish women would form a new market for his distillate. But custom dictated that women could enter a pub only via a "snug" an enclosed area separated from the bar and that had obvious limitations. He also believed that since Irishmen rarely, if ever, stocked whiskey at home preferring to drink with their cronies in pubs, women were being dealt "a bad hand." 

By creating the "miniatures," he enabled the countryman with the ability to provide for his wife without being spied upon by the neighbors who could clearly identify a large, obviously visible bottle.

John Ryan, a scion of the Power family, is probably Ireland's leading chronicler of legends as they relate to the world of whiskey. Ryan is a fund of information on such esoterica as the history of the toast. "The word is derived from the 15th century custom of putting a bit of toast in a drink, presumably to add flavor. By the 18th century, it had taken on its present meaning. My surmise is that, in between, people discovered that a graceful sincere thought added more flavor to a drink than a slice of toasted bread," Ryan opined.

"And why do people clink glasses after a toast?" Ryan expanded helpfully. 
"The sound was believed to drive away evil spirits. The superstition is not just endemic to Ireland. That's why the Chinese celebrate holidays with firecrackers," he said.

Possibly the most familiar of Irish toasts remains the following:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back
The sun shine warn upon your face
And rain fall oft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand

Tullamore Dew was first distilled in 1829. Created in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, by one Michael Malloy. Today, it is the only Irish whiskey packaged in a handsome"jar" or ceramic crock (as well as glass) and reminiscent of the days when it was a "standard" fireplace ornament.

Eventually the distillery passed to a grandnephew, Capt. Bernard Daly. Since the officer had most of his time was taken by such interests as horseracing, in turn he passed the mantle to an employee D.E. Williams, who used the acronym of his initials for an early and memorable advertising slogan "Give Every Man His Dew."

n the waning years of the last century, the late American spirits importer, Sidney Frank, became fascinated with a movie about the Irish patriot Michael Collins, the iconic leader of the forces in the 1921 Civil War. With the permission of the patriot's descendants, Frank launched its Michael Collins Irish Whiskey with a picture of the War of Independence veteran on the label. 

Introduced last year in the U.S., to date, more than 50,000 cases of the whiskey have been sold since the launch. Made at the independent Cooley Distillery in the outskirts of Dublin, the bottle features a copy of Collins' signature from the 1921 Treaty on the bottle neck 

Collins was one of the most prominent IRA leaders during the War of Independence. He signed the treaty with the British government which led to the creation of the Irish Free State but split the republican movement. In agreeing to the treaty, Collins famously said he was "signing my own death warrant." His eventual assassination, during the subsequent civil war, saw him become one of Irish nationalism's most famous figures.

One doesn't have to confine nomenclature to mankind. Take Tyrconnell, named after a horse that won the 1876 Queen Victoria Plate at 100 to 1 odds. 

New to the American market it is one of two Irish malts produced by the Cooley Distillery.

Actually, Tyrconnell was an ancient kingdom of Ireland. Conall Gulban, a son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, king of Ireland, acquired the wild territory in the northwest of Ulster (the modern Co. Donegal), and founded the kingdom about the middle of the 5th century. Of the several branches of his family, the O'Connells, O'Cannanans and O'Dohertys may be mentioned. The kings of Tyrconnell maintained their position until 1071. 

A potable is also be memorialized as a swan by the poet William Butler Yeats who wrote "The Wilde Swans at Coole":

"The trees are in their autumn beauty/The woodland paths are dry/Under the October twilight the water/Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones are nine-and-fifty swans." 

Now the 60th swan exists in the persona of Coole Swan, an expensive and handsomely bottled cream liqueur just introduced to America.

Ireland is noted for the beautiful castles that reside in the countryside, among them, the magnificent Knappogue Castle, in County Clare which also lends its name to a vintage single malt. 

Built in 1497 by Sean MacNamara, Knappogue Castle has a long and varied history, serving from battlefield to dwelling place. In 1571, Knappogue became the Seat of the MacNamara clan which actually descended from Brian Boru. In fact, one of the castle's stained glass windows features the legendary high king. The bar pours Knappogue single malt.

Over generations, the castle exchanged hands many times, and after falling to disrepair in the 1920s, it was later purchased and restored by Mark Edwin Andrews and his wife of Houston, Tex. During this time, Andrews began buying casks of fine pot still whiskey from the top distilleries in Ireland. He aged and bottled them under the Knappogue Castle label. His last batch of Knappogue 1951 is now the oldest and rarest Irish whiskey. 

By 1966, the leading whiskey families in Ireland, decided to amalgamate as Irish Distillers Ltd., in order to end financially expensive competition and to join in a mutual fight to regain what they regarded as a fair share of the American market. 

Some years ago, in the world-wide takeover trend of privately-held companies, France's Pernod Ricard acquired the group, and ownership passed into foreign hands for the first time in history. The contemporary distillery is located in rural Midleton, Co. Cork, and is considered the world's largest.

Turning away from spirits and towards beer, The Irish might be considered far-sighted. What other country in the world would welcome a man so sure of his product that in 1759 he would sign a £9,000 lease for a brewery along the River Liffey in Dublin. His prescience has been justified.

That man, of course, was Arthur Guinness who came to Ireland from England with a 100-pound legacy from the Archbishop of Cashel, scarcely a fortune even in those days, to set up his good works. Today, the once family-owned business is part of the giant Diageo spirits group still producing stout and lager. More than 10 million glasses of Guinness beer are poured every single day around the world, and 1.8 billion pints are sold every year.

The beer is available in well over 100 countries worldwide and is brewed in almost 50. 

Although it was sold by Diageo some years ago, the Guinness Book of Records, now called the World Record Book adds to the luster of the breweryand contains an internationally recognized collection of world records. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series.

By way of background. In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Brewery, went on a shooting party in the North Slob, alongside the River Slaney in Co. Wexford.. He became involved in an argument: which was the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse? 

That evening at Castlebridge House, he realized that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europe's fastest game bird. Beaver thought that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in the 81,400 pubs in Britain and Ireland, but there was no book with which to settle arguments about records. He realized then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove popular. One thousand copies were printed and given away. 

The first 198-page edition was bound in 1955 and went to the top of the British best seller lists by Christmas. "It was a marketing give away; it wasn't supposed to be a money-maker," said Beaver. The following year it was launched in the U.S. and sold 70,000 copies. After the book became a surprise hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year. 

The Welsh have their own saint and saint's day, March 1, and their own whisky. But ironically, Penderyn single malt is named after Saint David or Dewi Sant, the patron saint of Wales who drank nothing but water. And in fact Dewi is known in Welsh as David the water drinker.

Dewi died in the sixth century, so nearly 500 years elapsed between his death and the first manuscripts recording his life. Dewi is said to have been of royal lineage. His father, Sant, was the son of Ceredig. The latter was Ddyfrwr, prince of Ceredigion, a region in Southwest Wales. His mother, Non, was the daughter of a local chieftain. Legend has it that Non was also a niece of King Arthur. 

Sometimes, Dewi, as a self-imposed penance, would stand up to his neck in a lake of cold water, reciting Scripture. Little wonder, then, that some authors have seen Dewi as an early Puritan!