Dundalk Distillery

[3] Two of the distillery buildings, the grain store and maltings, still exist and now house the County Museum and Dundalk Library.

[3] The distillery was used as a navigation point by seamen due to its two large chimney stacks, one of which was the largest in Ireland when it was built in 1817.

The most notable of which was established in 1780 by James Gilleghan and Peter Godbey at Roden Place on the site of an old tannery and bleach ground.

That year, the owners of the distillery, having large stores of grain, generously had the stock ground into meal and sold at a rate which the poor could afford.

[8] In 1823, Malcolm Brown, then in the trade "nearly twenty years" gave testimony to a British House of Commons inquiry into distilling regulations in Ireland.

[9] As a result, Brown had ceased distilling at Dundalk the previous December, and that had no intention of resuming operations until the excise regulations were reformed.

[9] Brown stated that whiskey from Dundalk distillery was principally consumed in nearby counties of Armagh, Cavan and Down, and that some of his matured spirit sold at 12 shillings a gallon.

[3] For a period of time, the distillery found some success by focusing on the production of grain spirit, with yeast a lucrative by-product which was exported to England under the name of "Skylark".

[3][5] Under DCL ownership, production continued at Dundalk Distillery until 1926, when after 218 years, distilling stopped, the partition of Ireland in 1922 possibly hastening its demise.

[6][2] In 1927, the Irish Government entered negotiations with DCL with regard to re-opening the distillery in the interests of local employment.

[13] John Teeling, founder of the Cooley Distillery, announced plans to redevelop the Great Northern Brewery in Dundalk as distilling complex in a €35 million investment.