Micheál O’Flaherty

Yeah, so Pudging has this wonderful thing where it's in every, every single Irish person in the country knows about Pudging and they think that they know what it is and they think they've had it or they'll talk about it or they'll talk about it as if they do.

And so few people actually know what it's about.

We have this real proud distilling tradition in Ireland that goes all the way back to 600 AD, according to the history books.

And this spirit would have known, been known as Fwishke.

And Fwishke comes from the Irish, ishkabaha, water of life.

And Fwish got really, really, really popular around Ireland.

Then in 1661, the great bar that Steffi works at is named after.

The British Crown decided they do best, put a tax on things.

And we, the Irish, said what we do best, find a way to avoid paying that tax.

And we had the birth of two distilling traditions in Ireland.

We had those who paid the tax to the Crown, who became known as Parliament whisky makers.

Fwishke went anglicising to whisky.

And they had the ability then to get these big loans, these grants, and turn cottage industries into these mega industries that we know today.

You know, Jemison, Paddy, Powers, Bushmills, all these big, big distilleries.

Then there was the other side, those who decided, you know what, we're not going to pay this tax, and we're going to find another way to distill.

And this became known as puttine.

And puttine and lew, so it's a list of nature.

In Irish, it means put the pot in small.

So small seals you can hide from yourself, the wife, the kids, the church, the guards, the constable, from whoever prying eyes were coming from.

So this tradition, I suppose, has a bit of a bad reputation here in Ireland.