Illicit Poitin (Poteen) Making in Connemara, Ireland 1968
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- The makers of poteen produced illegally stand to make a tidy profit but do consumers know what exactly it is they are drinking?
In remote parts of Ireland, men are making poteen. It might be cheap to produce and profitable for producers but what exactly does it contain?
It costs one shilling to make a pint of poteen but you can sell it for twenty five bob.
The job of the Gardaí has become more difficult in detecting these poteen makers. In the past, the telltale smoke of a poteen fire often gave away the poteen makers location. Today, a modern approach using bottled gas helps the poteen maker to remain unidentified. The process of making poteen has also become a lot quicker, now only taking two days. All that you need is a still, a funnel, and a copper worm. For the ingredients, you’ll need barley, water, yeast, and sugar. The business of making poteen is now less risky, cheap and profitable.
But when you buy a bottle of poteen, what exactly are you getting? You may get “the good stuff” or you may get something that is not really poteen. Some moonshiners have taken to making their version of poteen without using barley and replacing it with a root crop like beetroot.
Worse, some producers use bleach to make the liquid clear. Drinking this version of poteen can cause permanent harm.
At the Office of the Public Analyst in Galway, tests are carried out to verify the ingredients used.
This episode of ‘Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 19 November 1968. The reporter is Cathal O’Shannon.
Years ago it was made on an offshore island,,when the Garda would row a boat out to that island someone would ring the church bell for the lads to scarper of the island
That tune at the end is a banger.
The boys in the lab were in the horrors :)
the soundtrack at the end is beyond hilarious. thank you
I used the "good stuff" to cure a calf years ago when the Vet had given up on him,some shiny he coat he had after,made a right few bob on him too!
Oul Poitín, only great when it is not legal. Love it.
is more valuable and tastes far better with it is illegally, out in the hills under the moonlight
My dear departed father and his brothers were very fine Connemara mountain Poitín in their younger days, luckily they did not drink much of their own mountain dew, only enough to keep themselves warm on cold winter nights and to cure bad flues and colds, after they distilled their illegal liquid they would bottle up and head across wet boglands, cross rivers and over mountains in the late dark evenings and winter night, sometimes crossing over into Co Mayo to sell to people they trusted. they mostly avoided the Giardia by using the roads as little as possible, they were never caught but on a few occasions their distil was discovered and damaged. My father often told us stories about their poitín distilling and how sheep, cattle and seagulls would gather waiting for the wash, around to eat up the used barley and a little later the sheep and cows would begin to stager and wobble, and as the seagulls tried to take off and fly, they would come crashing back down to the ground, it would take many hours before they fully recovered from their eating drinking secession
I was listening to "Hills of Connemara" today. 😂
Cathal O’Shannon was brilliant 👍
Of course, anything that attracts extortionate taxes is illegal if you make it yourself for pennies ! We quite like our 60% homemade Brandy. Apples and sugar and something else. Maybe a quid a litre, and no headaches after !
I like the old songs about making poteen. No interest in actually drinking it. I'll stick to a creamy pint of Guinness. Makes you strong!
A drink made for centuries in Oreland becomes dangerous and unlawful when the taxman and corporate forced are effected by locals supplying the drink that lowers the orofits of the state and buskness. Fear mongerig all the way back in the 60s. Those that make the water of God always test it themselves and sell to locals who wouldnt take kindly to a bad batch. Thatsbwhat keeps the quality to a standard.
There was always a criminal element involved in the trade that were only after money: going into a busy metropolitan pub, selling it out of a car boot to tourists and unsuspecting and naive locals, never the same seller to return.
The locals selling to locals are obviously trustworthy, but a good portion of the trade outside of that was facilitated by organised criminals of varying professionalism and ethics, where net profit margins were all that mattered.
It is because it is so high in alcohol percentage
Compared to the 1830's when Revenue had made its own separate armed police force specifically to catch them, and there was an entire British government inquiry done on attempting to curtail it, a few Guards on a boat and a news report isn't that bad lol.
They revenue police used to have to go in large groups too, because the poitín makers tended to be armed