In Praise of Poteen.
Author: McGUFFIN, John.
Belfast: Appletree Press, 1999 (reprint). 166 pages. Illustrated. Paperback.
A book of almost classic status to those who know it, In Praise of Poteen deserves to be widely read. Its subject, the time-honoured Irish practice of illegal distillation of whiskey, is one of great human and social interest. Its treatment by John McGuffin is scholarly and entertaining, and enriched with a vast knowledge of the history, techniques and lore of the poitin makers.
Based upon much personal and anecdotal evidence as well as on documented sources, it is a book which can never be written again, for the old men who gave their reminiscences to the author are no longer with us.
The long struggle between the poitin men and the Excise is full of tragi-comic and strange episodes. But the author does not romanticise or sentimentalise the business, and his chapter on the scourge of ether drinking makes sobering reading.
In Praise of Poteen brings a legendary but little-known aspect of Irish history to life. The photographs, grainy and faded as some of them are, bring their own atmosphere and authenticity to the story.
ISBN: 0862817684
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