Micil poitín

In the back of Olso Bar In Salthill, Galway you’ll find Micil Distillery, founded by former schoolteacher Pádraic Ó Griallais. Ó Griallais gave up teaching in 2015 to bring legal distillation back to Galway after a century, but his family have been distilling in nearby Connemara (not to be confused with the peated whiskey made at Cooley Distillery in Dublin), for the last 170 years. It began with Micil Mac Chearra, who the distillery is named after, back in 1848 and over six generations of his family have continued to make poitín. Ó Griallais is the first to do so legally, however. You can hear all about his journey to create Micil Distillery here.