[1] Built at a cost of £20,000, the extensive operation included a distillery, a dwelling house, two flour mills, kilns, stores, and other buildings.
The visit apparently incited an angry reaction from Bartholomew Hackett, one of the senior partners in the firm and present on site at the time.
[4] For reasons which were later disputed in court, the Hacketts did not file an official plea against the latter charge within the required timeframe, and were found guilty by default.
[4] The consequences of which were most severe: withdrawal of their license to distill, imposition of a large fine, and the forced sale of their distillery.
[5] In 1845, the Hacketts won a suit against their attorney, claiming that he had been negligent in failing to file a plea of “not guilty” against the charge of “obstruction”.
Murphy’s, a large enterprise which had opened in 1825, just months after Hackett’s, and the only other distillery in Midleton, had been their chief business rival.