Stillgarden Distillery overcame initial difficulties at the onset of the pandemic, and now employs 11 people producing its range of gins, vodkas and aperitifs
Pat O Brien wears a loud floral shirt and drainpipe jeans, has a sweary mouth to rival fellow Mancunian Liam Gallagher and laughs like Santa Claus. The world does not need another bloody bottle of gin, he booms, in response to my comment about how the Irish gin market seems pretty crowded these days.
We re in Stillgarden, Pat and wife Viki Baird s shiny new distillery in the Goldenbridge Industrial Estate, in the heart of Dublin s Inchicore. The distilling room s walls are hung with glass tubes packed with oddities like chunks of Werther s Original toffees, Tayto crisps, seaweed and marshmallows, all used by the Willy Wonka-inspired distillers to create their own off-the-wall gins and vodkas.