How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hiccup)
by Patricia Noonan

The Emerald Isle has been known for fabulous writers, musicians, and a whole host of saints and if I had to talk about them I could go on for days. Most of the reasons I'm thankful for my Irish heritage have to do with drinking, which isn't such a terrible pastime, as long as you don't overdo it. We Irish DO to tend to talk a lot too, and that would make me very thirsty, so I'll just cut to the chase. A certain Thomas Cahill wrote a book called 'How the Irish Saved Civilization" in reference to the scholarly monks who spread the gospel from Ireland throughout Western Europe. When Cahill wrote of civilization, he probably meant art, religion and education, but I'm proud of the other more practical expressions of Irish ingenuity. I thought I'd assemble my own personal list of things made famous by the Irish and stick to the drinks part of it. Is this a blatant ripoff of Thomas Cahill's book of the same title? I think not. With all due respect, I thought it prudent to report that the important things in life are around, due to the creative intelligence of a few old spudmasters, so I've extended his scholarly research a tad. With St. Patrick's Day coming up, I have many reasons to be thankful I was named after the patron saint of Ireland. Here are a few.

Guinness, of course, is an obvious choice for the list. If it hadn't been for the persistence of Arthur Guinness, the famous 'porter' style beer likely wouldn'tr have survived as a classic Irish beer. Guinness began his brewing career in County Kildare (1755) after he was left 100 pounds in the will of Archbishop Price, his godfather. In 1759, Arthur signed a 9,000 year lease on an unused brewery at St. Jame's Gate, in Dublin.( I guess he planned to be immortal.) The original brewery made dark ales but Arthur embarked on creating a beer in line with the latest trend amongst Covent Garden train porters in London. Charles thought this rich, dark, flavourful beer was the future, and he threw himself wholeheartedly into creating his brand, Guinness 'Extra' porter, that wonderful dark nectar. Guinness sales tripled during the Napoleonic Wars and St. James Gate became the biggest stout brewery in the world. The rest is history.

Then there was Aeneas Coffey, the tax man who came up with the 'Coffey' still, also known as the continuous distillation method. There are two types of distillation, pot distillation being the original form. The Coffey still was revolutionary because it allowed volumes of alcohol to be created very quickly and efficiently. (Not that there's anything wrong with pot distillation. It's just more labour intensive.) As well, the built in rectification process made it easier to turn out a more pure, potable spirit. This type of distillation is now used all over the world for every kind of neutral spirit. Most Irish whiskey styles use a combination of continous distillation and pot still, although there are some distillers going back to the pot still method. It changed the face of the spirits business and uniquely, both Irish whiskey and blended Scotch whisky. That must sound like a strange connection but there's more to it. Malt whisky (from barley) and other grain whiskies are blended to create a blend 'profile'. Scottish single malt whisky is pot distilled and highly characteristic of the place where it is made and aged. Other grain whiskies, distilled using the Coffey distillation method, are lighter and more neutral and make up a significant part of blended whiskey, of which the single malts are also a part. (The Scottish took this innovation and basically outdid the Irish with it.)

Let's go with cognac now. This is one of the original brandies from France, but it took the creativity of Richard Hennessy, an Irishman, to begin shipping it worldwide. Originally, Richard Hennessy was a Captain of the Irish Brigades and fought alongside the French Regiments of Louis IV. Richard tired of military life after recovering from injuries sustained in battle, but he found the French countryside enchanting, and decided to remain in Cognac. Richard was also quite fond of the local brandy named after the region, and he shipped a few casks to his family and friends back home. The response was enthusiastic. Initially, the usual destinations were Ireland and Great Britain, but in the Victorian Era, the Hennessy Company began to ship worldwide and began the important export link to Asia in the 1860s. This was the first cognac brand to capitalize on the importance of advertising. Hennessy Cognac also has the largest stores of aged cognac in the world, which doesn't hurt when it comes to making those expensive bottlings, like Hennessey XO, Paradis Extra or ...look, because of my Irish roots, I could go on, but I think it's time to celebrate on my Saint's Day and it looks like I have a selection of excellent starting points. Here's to civilization in a glass! Slainte!

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