Originally produced by the Cork Distilleries Company, two years after it was founded in 1877, Cork Distillery Company Old Irish Whiskey, as Paddy Irish Whiskey was initially known, distilled using locally grown barley and pure water from tributaries of the river Lee. It was also one of the first bottled whiskies, after the distillery was prompted to take measures as a reaction to preventable fluctuations in quality. During the 1920s and 1930s in Ireland, it was common place for whiskey to be sold in casks from the distillery to wholesalers, who would in turn sell it on to publicans. The problem was, bonders would typically help themselves to a tipple from the cask, and then subsequently dilute the stock to mask the transgression. By bottling its whiskey instead, the Cork Distilleries Company realised it could bypass this issue.
The name Cork Distillery Company Old Irish Whiskey lasted throughout the later part of the 19th and very early 20th century, but that would soon change. In that era, Irish whiskey was often marketed by travelling salesman, who would move around the pubs of Cork and buy drinks for the customers. One such flogger of fun was Patrick J. Flaherty. He joined the Cork Distilleries Company in 1882 and began to cover an area stretching from Youghal to Mallow. His sales techniques were so effective, that it didn’t take long for his name to become synonymous with the whiskey, not only in Ireland, but abroad too. Recognising this, the distillery officially renamed the whiskey in 1912 in his honour - to Paddy Irish Whiskey.
Still produced in Cork, but now by Irish Distillers, Paddy Irish Whiskey is Ireland's third best selling whiskey. Still using the finest barley and water, it’s distilled three times, with a low pot-still content and uniquely high proportion of malt whiskey. Little wonder then that Jim Murray once described it as “One of the softest of all Ireland's whiskeys”.