Original distiller blown away by new facility

Tullamore’s new distillery has been described as “mind-boggling” by 84-year-old Tom McCabe, who worked in the old distillery in the town until it closed 60 years ago.
Tom, who subsequently settled in the US, travelled from his home in Ridgewood, New Jersey, to be there for the launch of the new €35m development in Clonminch on Wednesday.
The hugely-impressive distillery was developed inside the last two years by the Scottish owners of the Tullamore DEW brand, William Grant & Sons.  
Speaking to the Offaly Independent on a landmark occasion for the town and region on Wednesday, Tom said he never expected to see distilling return to the town of Tullamore.
“When I look at this layout, I’m blown away. Absolutely blown away,” he said.
“Not alone by how big it is but how immaculately clean it is. I know it’s just been built, but when you compare it to the old distillation, that I knew, there is no comparison.”
Tom said he worked in the original distillery on Bury Quay for several years, running the copper still alongside two men, Paddy McCabe (no relation) and Ivor Quigley, both of whom had since passed away.
When asked what the old distillery was like as a workplace, he reminsced: “Looking back, I don’t think any place was great to work in at that time. The working conditions you just had to contend with.
“I really had no complaints because I didn’t have anything to compare it to.
“All I know is that my clothes used to reek of fermentation vats and that type of thing!” Tom said this week at the opening.

Born in the US, Tom grew up on Clonminch Road in Tullamore alongside the family of the whiskey entrepreneur DE Williams. “That’s how I got the job at Tullamore DEW,” he recalled.
“We didn’t have money for college. I grew up with Michael and Edmund Williams and my mother went to them and said 'do you have a job for this kid?’ They said, yeah, we’ll put him down in the warehouses.  
“So I spent three to six months down in the warehouses but, as a young kid, I was curious about everything. I used to go up and look at the mash tuns and fermentation vats and furnaces,” said Tom.
“Then a guy got into trouble with the income tax and he left so when they went around looking for somebody (to replace him) I was the only one there. That’s how I got onto distilling,” he explained.
Tom emigrated after the distillery closed, moving to London for a year before heading to New York. He spent five years in the US Air Force before embarking on a career with the JP Morgan firm in New York from 1962 until his retirement in 1995.
He was accompanied on his visit by several relatives, including his son, Kevin, who said it was an emotional day for the family.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said. “
“We just didn’t realise the size and the magnitude of this. It’s historic.”
Tom’s visit almost didn’t happen, as his passport went missing shortly before he was due to fly to Ireland.
“I lost my passport two days before I came. So we hit the panic button!” he said.
Thankfully the trip was salvaged after an emergency appointment at the US Passport office in Philadelphia on Monday morning.
Another attendee at the launch with a strong family connection to distilling in Tullamore was Tubber resident Anne Williams, a great-granddaughter of Daniel Edmund Williams who introduced the Tullamore DEW whiskey brand in 1893.
When asked for her thoughts on the opening of the distillery, Anne said: “I suppose in some ways you might call it bittersweet. Obviously there’s sadness that the Williams’s aren’t still involved but the great thing is that it’s going to go forward.
“It’s put a whole new life back into Tullamore, and put Tullamore back on the world map, which is obviously very significant for the town and for the brand.”
Anne herself worked for the Tullamore DEW brand in the US in the late 1970s and early 80s, prior to Irish whiskey’s current rejuvenation.
She said her late father, who was also DE Williams, was also on her mind at this week’s event.
“My father is dead about seven years, so it’s very nostalgic today, it’s emotional but it’s fantastic emotion. It’s very exciting.”