Irish wine

[citation needed] The facts surrounding Ireland's early wine production are unsettled.

Bede wrote in his AD 731 Ecclesiastical History of the English People that there was not "any want of vines" in Ireland.

However, Gerald of Wales wrote in the 12th century that Ireland did not have vines and Bede's claim was inaccurate.

Modern wine writer Susan Boyle, meanwhile, argues that wine-stained pottery found at archaeological sites serves as evidence that the ancient Celts introduced wine to Ireland about 500 years before Christ was born.

[5] There are records of previous attempts to cultivate the vine for wine production, such as in the 5th century, when monks at the (later Cistercian) monastery in County Kilkenny planted a vineyard,[6] with a number of other monastic communities following and also producing wine.