there are very few industries in the west of ireland, and of these by far the most lucrative is the distillation of illicit whisky, or, as it is generally called by the peasants, poteen.
the average countryman would far rather make a fiver by sticking a stranger with a horse than ￡100 by hard honest work. add an element of danger, and he is quite content. the making of poteen combines much profit with little labour and a good element of danger, in that the distiller may be caught by the police and heavily fined.
the beginning of poteen is lost in the mist of past ages, and the end will probably synchronise with the end of ireland; the amount made varies with the demand, and the demand fluctuates with the price and supply of whisky.
during 1919, when whisky became weak, dear, and scarce, and the police for a time practically ceased to function, the call for poteen became so great that the demand far exceeded the supply, and for many months the whisky sold in the majority of publichouses 138throughout the west was made up of a mixture of three-quarters poteen and a quarter whisky.
at the beginning of the last century all poteen was made from malt in the same way as whisky is made, until some thoughtful man argued that if they could make beer from sugar in england, we could surely make poteen from the same material in ireland; and as any one buying malt or growing barley was liable to attract the eye of the r.i.c., all poteen ceased to be made from malt, and the far simpler method of distilling from “treacle” continues to this day. treacle is largely imported in barrels to ireland, ostensibly for the purpose of fattening cattle and pigs.
in the early part of 1919 a young welshman, david evans, was demobilised with a good gratuity, and being a keen fisherman, determined he would have one good summer’s salmon-fishing in scotland before settling down to work. but evans was not the only man looking out for salmon-fishing in scotland, and he soon realised that that country was out of the question.
during the war evans had served at one time in the same division with blake, and thinking that the latter might know of some good salmon-fishing at a moderate rent, he wrote to him. by return of post came an answer from blake, saying that, owing to the bad state of the country, very few englishmen had taken fishings in ireland that season, and that there was a very good stretch of the 139owenmore river, about ten miles above ballybor, to let at a moderate rent.
evans at once wired asking blake to take the fishing for him, and ten days afterwards took up his quarters at carra lodge, a small fishing lodge on the bank of the river.
ireland has probably benefited more than any other country in europe by the war, and not least by the submarine scourge, which not only raised the prices of cattle and pigs beyond the dreams of avarice, but also increased the number of salmon in irish rivers to an extent unknown within the memory of man. before the war salmon and sea-trout in many western rivers were rapidly becoming exterminated through the great increase of drift-nets at sea; but directly the first german submarine was reported to have been seen off the west coast not a fisherman would leave land, with the result that the fish had free ingress to their native rivers, and the numbers of spawning fish were greatly increased.
evans had great sport, thoroughly enjoyed himself, and found the peasants quite the most charming and amusing people he had ever met. no matter what sort of house he entered, he was received like a prince and bid ten thousand welcomes; a carefully dusted chair would be placed by the fireside for “his honour,” and a large jar of poteen produced from under the bed.
towards the end of his time at carra lodge, evans came to the conclusion that, if he could only discover some way of making a decent 140income, he would settle down in the west of ireland; but the question of how to make money puzzled him greatly. farming did not appeal to him, and beyond that there did not appear to be any other industry open to an enterprising young man, and any profession was ruled out owing to the long period of training required.
before the war evans had worked for a short time in a distillery, and had a good idea of how to make whisky and of malting; but to start a distillery in the ballybor district was out of the question, owing to the smallness of his capital. but if he could not make whisky, he could make poteen with a very small outlay.
on making inquiries, he found that the possibilities of the idea were enormous; the outlay was small, the returns great, but the risks were also great. yet if detection could be avoided, the returns would only be limited by the amount of treacle and malt available.
at this period the country people were full of money, and as whisky was almost unattainable, they were prepared to pay a very high price for poteen, and the distilleries were rapidly making fortunes. still there was considerable danger attached to the trade. the police, though hardly ever seen outside their barracks except in large numbers, occasionally carried out extensive poteen raids, and as it was nearly an impossibility to find a house without poteen in it, they never returned empty-handed.
141having decided to go into the poteen trade, the next question was where to make it. to start distilling in a small way in a small house merely meant certain discovery after making small profits, and evans knew that once he was caught red-handed by the police the game would be up.
during bad times in any country, when the honest but timid men go to the wall, the unscrupulous but bold men come into their own, and often make a fortune by means which in quieter times would be out of the question. evans belonged to the latter class.
towards the end of 1919 the peasants started to burn unoccupied country-houses throughout the south and west. doubtless they were often burnt by wild young men without rhyme or reason, but also probably with the idea of making it impossible for the owners to return to their homes, and so force them to sell their demesne lands to the very people who had burnt their houses.
a few miles from carra lodge, at the foot of the mountains, stood one of the largest houses in connaught, ardcumber house, the family seat of one of the oldest elizabethan families in ireland, and probably the finest sporting demesne in the west. the great house, full of sheraton and chippendale furniture, commanded wonderful views of mountains and moors; while in front runs the owenmore river, famous for its salmon fishing, through a valley which in winter time can show more snipe, duck, geese, and wild game 142of all sorts than any other valley of its size in the british isles.
one would have thought that the above sporting attractions would have satisfied any man; but the owner was one of those queer irishmen who preferred any country to his own, and divided his time between london and continental watering-places, leaving the management of his estates to an agent, who lived in ballybor.
when reading the ‘field’ one evening, evans came across an advertisement of ardcumber house to let to a careful tenant at a nominal rent. realising that the agent feared the house would be burnt if left empty, he drove into ballybor the following day, took blake with him to interview the agent, and drove home with a lease of ardcumber house in his pocket, at a rent which the sale of game and salmon would cover twice over.
the best of the fishing being now over, evans crossed to england, nominally to collect his kit, in reality to have a large still made, which he had packed in large cases, labelled furniture, and brought over by long sea to ballybor. at the same time he arranged with a sugar agent in england to ship treacle in paraffin barrels to ballyrick and ballybor as he required it.
when at home in wales he induced a cousin, john evans, to join him, and the two set out for ireland. in dublin they purchased a ford truck, which they had fitted up as a shooting waggonette with a hood like a boxcar, 143and in this, after obtaining the necessary police permit through blake, they drove straight down to the west, and took up their quarters at ardcumber.
they found the house in charge of an old woman, who lived in one of the gate lodges, and arranged with her to cook for them and look after the few rooms they used, allowing her to go home every evening at six o’clock.
at the top of the house they found six large rooms shut off from the rest of the house by a heavy door at the head of the stairs. here they erected the still, using a fireplace as a flue; in a second room they erected wooden fomenting vessels, and in a third stored the treacle and poteen. in order to obtain a supply of water they fitted a pipe to the main water-supply tank, which was in the roof above the attics.
they now settled down to a regular routine of shooting by day and distilling for a greater part of the night, living entirely to themselves. once a week they drove into ballybor in the ford to obtain provisions.
whenever they learnt that a consignment of treacle had reached ballybor or ballyrick, they at once removed it in the ford, stored it in the stables, which they kept carefully locked, and carried the treacle in large pails at night-time to the fermenting vessels in the attics.
at this time, so occupied were the police with looking after themselves, and the country people with keeping clear of the r.i.c. and the 144volunteers, that nobody gave a thought to the “two queer foreigners above in the big house” who were mad on shooting.
as soon as they had accumulated a good supply of poteen (the irish peasant has no fancy ideas about allowing poteen to mature, and will as soon drink it hot from the still as not), they began to think of how to dispose of it without calling unnecessary attention to themselves. in the end they decided not to try distributing the poteen themselves, but to find a reliable agent who had a good knowledge of the locality.
even when he was very poor indeed the western peasant always insisted on having the best of tea, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that he insisted on paying a high price. at one time, so great were the profits on tea, that merchants used to send carts through the country districts selling nothing but tea, called by the country people “tay carts.”
david evans found out that the principal tea merchant for the ballybor district—in fact, for many miles round—was a grocer called terence o’dowd, who kept a large shop in ballybor, and had a branch in ballyrick. hearing that o’dowd was fond of coursing, evans called at his shop, and after buying a quantity of provisions, invited the man to bring his hounds out to ardcumber the following sunday for some coursing.
after the coursing they took o’dowd into their confidence, showed him the distillery 145and arranged that he should act as their agent. this part was simple, but the difficulty was how, when, and where to deliver the goods to o’dowd. if the “tay carts” came to ardcumber, or the distillery ford went to o’dowd’s continually, suspicion would be aroused. after a long discussion they decided on a plan of action.
once a week, when evans drove into ballybor for provisions, he was to fill up the ford with poteen and leave the car in a shed in o’dowd’s yard, where the poteen could be transferred to o’dowd’s cellars and the car loaded up with empties. o’dowd wanted to use earthenware jars, but evans decided on two-gallon petrol tins as being less likely to excite suspicion.
for a considerable time the plan worked well. evans took a full load weekly to o’dowd’s, whose tea carts distributed the poteen far and wide throughout the district.
one morning blake, who had spent a busy night raiding in the district for arms and poteen stills, called in at ardcumber on his way home and had breakfast with the evans. during the conversation he mentioned casually that the country was flooded with poteen, and that they had failed to find out where it was being made, but that they suspected it was being delivered in tea carts from ballybor.
as soon as blake had gone david drove off into ballybor, settled up his accounts with o’dowd, who was only too thankful to be rid 146of the job in time, and before he left for home had arranged with an egg merchant called michael flanagan, who sent lorries out to all the villages for miles around collecting eggs, to take over the agency, the petrol tins to be hidden in the straw of the empty egg-crates.
the police appear to have had no suspicion of evans, and the probabilities are that the ardcumber distillery would have worked on indefinitely but for interference from a quite unsuspected quarter. the sinn fein leaders of the district began to grow uneasy at the effects of the apparently unlimited supply of poteen on the discipline of the volunteers, and determined to put down the industry.
any men who were now found with stills in their possession by the sinn fein police were paraded before the congregation outside the chapels after mass on sunday morning, the stills broken up with hammers, the owners heavily fined, and then let go with a warning of much severer penalties if they were found guilty of the same offence again.
afterwards evans and flanagan received summonses to appear on a named date before a sinn fein court. flanagan went and was heavily fined, but evans took no notice of the summons.
flanagan was now, of course, afraid to act as agent, and the question again arose of how they were to get the poteen to the different buyers. while matters were in this state flanagan sent a warning to evans that the volunteers would raid ardcumber on a certain 147night, and that the results would be very unpleasant for them.
the situation was now serious. it was impossible for two men to defend such a large house, and once inside, the volunteers, apart from the fact that they would probably shoot them, would certainly break up the distillery, and the rapid increase of their bank balances would cease.
that evening they received a letter stating that they had been banished from ireland by an order of the sinn fein court, and giving them two days in which to leave the country. the same night, after dark, a volley of shots was fired through the window of every room showing a light, and the following morning they had to cook their own breakfast, as the old woman did not turn up.
but david evans was not beaten yet. after breakfast he motored into ballybor, where he waited until it was dark. he then went to the barracks, and told blake that the volunteers had threatened to raid ardcumber the following night for arms, and suggested that the police should ambush the volunteers in the grounds.
blake, only too glad to help a friend, and eager to get the volunteers together in the open, consented, and before evans left the two had thought out a very pretty trap.
it has been mentioned that ardcumber stood at the foot of a range of mountains, which isolated the ballybor country on the east, and across them for many miles there was only 148one track, which led down to the back of the demesne, and which was never used except by country people bringing turf in creels on donkeys from the mountain bogs during the day-time.
blake proposed to start out the following afternoon with a good force, cross the mountains by the main road, which ran through a pass due east of ballybor, and return by the mountain track, reaching ardcumber demesne soon after dark. here david evans was to meet them and guide them to the scene of the ambush. the district between the demesne and the mountains was thinly populated, and at that hour no one would be abroad for fear of the black and tans. the attackers would be certain to come from the opposite direction, and would not be likely to arrive before the moon rose at 11 p.m.
the police, with a party of cadets and two lewis guns, were in position by 9 p.m. in a shrubbery on each side of the avenue, about a hundred yards from the house. at 11.30 p.m. the volunteers, sure of their prey, marched up the avenue in column of route, singing the “soldiers’ song.” when they were within forty yards blake called on them to halt, lay down their arms, and put up their hands.
the column halted at once, and for a second appeared to waver, but an officer gave the order to deploy. before the column could break up both lewis guns opened fire.
unfortunately at this moment a dark cloud obscured the moon and heavy rain began to 149fall, with the result that, after the first short burst of fire, the volunteers were invisible; and though the police started in pursuit, they failed to overtake the flying rebels, and had to concentrate on the house.
after collecting and rendering first-aid to the wounded—there were none killed—the police brought their cars up to the house, and shortly afterwards returned to ballybor.
the evanses were now fairly safe from the volunteers, but again the question of distributing the poteen arose, and this time it looked as though they would have to do it themselves. they tried to induce flanagan to come on again; but the egg merchant was by now thoroughly frightened, and thankful to get off with a heavy fine. o’dowd, being a police suspect, was out of the question, but there still remained his majesty’s mails.
the story of how the evanses had played the police off against the volunteers was soon the talk of the countryside for many a mile, and so queer and uncertain is the irish peasant’s mentality that, where one would have expected them to be furious and determined to be avenged, on the contrary their great sense of humour was immensely tickled at the idea of the police defending the ardcumber distillery, and the evanses became popular heroes.
after the volunteer attack, blake, being afraid that they might make another attempt to capture the arms in ardcumber house, offered david a party of black and tans for protection, but this offer was refused.
150for some time his majesty’s mail cars carried the ardcumber poteen punctually and efficiently—in fact, far better than either o’dowd or flanagan had done. petrol tins were still used to put the poteen in, and evans would leave the full tins at a garage twice a week, where the mail cars got their petrol from, and if a mail car carried a few extra tins of petrol, who thought anything about it?
unfortunately the mail contract for that district ran out a few months afterwards, and this time was given to a man from the north, an orangeman, and once again evans had to find a fresh way of sending round the country his now famous poteen.
but so popular had the evanses become that, instead of having to seek agents, they received offers to deliver the poteen from the manager of a creamery in the cloonalla district, and also from the manager of a cooperative society in a village distant about four miles from ardcumber. evans closed with both offers, and the cousins redoubled their efforts to turn out all the poteen they possibly could, knowing that an end must come sooner or later.
two months afterwards the auxiliaries discovered that the creamery was being used as a sinn fein prison, and, as a result, raided the place one night and burnt it to the ground. incidentally, they found several full petrol tins in the manager’s office, filled up their petrol tanks with them, and could not make out why the cars would not start.
151it is both possible and probable that, except for some unforeseen accident, the evanses might have gone on making and selling poteen for an indefinite time—in fact, as long as the country remained in the present state of chaos. the distillation of poteen always has and always will appeal to the western peasant, and the story of how the evanses called in the police to defend their still against the attack of the volunteers will be told over the firesides of many a cottage for generations to come—long after sinn fein is dead and buried.
but at last their good luck deserted them. one night while working at the still, john carelessly knocked over an oil-lamp, and in a moment the old dry woodwork of the attic was in flames. before morning the grand old house, with its great collection of priceless furniture, was a smouldering ruin, nothing but the bare blackened walls standing, and so it is likely to remain for all time.
the evanses, having made a considerable sum of money by now, said good-bye to blake, and returned to their native land.
