[2] John Jameson (1740–1823) was originally a lawyer from Alloa in Scotland before he founded his eponymous distillery in Dublin in 1780.

202, of the Dublin Freemasons on 24 June 1774[5] and in 1780, Irish whiskey distillation began at Bow Street.

[6] The fourth of Jameson's sons, Andrew, who had a small distillery at Enniscorthy, County Wexford, was the grandfather of Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy.

The Jamesons became the most important distilling family in Ireland, despite the rivalry between the Bow Street and Marrowbone Lane distilleries.

The temperance movement in Ireland had an enormous impact domestically but the two key events that affected Jameson were the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent trade war with the British which denied Jameson the export markets of the Commonwealth, and shortly thereafter, the introduction of prohibition in the United States.

While Scottish brands could still be legally shipped to Canada (from where they could be easily smuggled across the Canada–US border) Jameson was excluded from its biggest market for many years.

The Irish in general, and Jameson in particular, continued with the traditional pot still production process for many years.

The Jameson brand was acquired by the French drinks conglomerate Pernod Ricard in 1988 when it bought Irish Distillers.

The old Jameson Distillery in Bow Street near Smithfield in Dublin now serves as a museum which offers tours and tastings.

In April 2023, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko, called for a boycott of Jameson Whiskey as the company continued to trade with Russia after sanctions were introduced after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[13] Irish Distillers said that their parent company Pernod Ricard had decided to cease export of all international brands to Russia.

The barley is dried in a closed kiln fired by natural gas (formerly anthracite coal).