Family Lore & Tradition

At least 12 generations of the Walsh family are known to have farmed on the foothills of Croagh Patrick in Mayo.
The earliest available census from 1901 records a family of 9 in a two-roomed thatched cottage, quaintly described as “second class”. The head of the household, my great grandfather Patrick, listed his occupation as a tenant farmer, rather that his actual vocation of Poitin maker, for which he had a first class reputation throughout the County of Mayo.
A tradition passed on through multiple generations. The small family farm adjoins the commonage on the often mist-shrouded mountain, which would have hidden the smoke of the turf-fired copper still. If detected by Revenue, all he had to do was jump over his wall. Patrick is believed to have been incarcerated and charged with illicit distillation on several occasions, but no record of any conviction can be found.

My late father – also Patrick – often reminisced about hiding bottles in the cabbage patch as a child whenever a raid was rumoured. He would have been immensely proud to see the family tradition acknowledged and finally legal.

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