Libations Episodes

North Dublin native Fergus “Fergie” Carey didn’t just open a bar in Philadelphia, he helped invent a neighborhood, a scene, and a sense of community that stretches from Center City to the Irish arts world and back again. In this on‑location episode recorded upstairs at Fergie’s Pub on Sansom Street, Irish Stew cohost John Lee traces Fergie’s journey from Burgerland on O’Connell Street to becoming one of Philly’s best‑known publicans and civic connectors.

Irish Stew wraps its Off the Beaten Craic in the Hidden Heartlands Series in Drumshanbo, the Co. Leitrim town rewriting the rural renewal playbook. What began as a desperate effort to save a shuttered jam factory has become one of Ireland's most remarkable community-led success stories. At The Food Hub in Drumshanbo, cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee hear from Cllr Enda McGloin and onsite manager Fergal McPartland how a voluntary local committee refused to let the abandoned jam factory slip a...

The oldest pub in Ireland, Europe…the world? Lend an ear as we explore the legend and lore of Sean’s Bar with the pub’s official storyteller Timmy Donovan. A central character in the Sean’s Bar story for the past 37 years, Timmy flips the calendar back to AD 900 when Luain Mac Luighdeach set up an inn on the banks of the Shannon which would evolve over the centuries into the Sean’s Bar of today. He points out the ancient wicker-and-wattle construction unearthed in the venerable pub’s plaster ...

Join us in jail, or is it gaol, as in the Crumlin Road Gaol, the last Victorian era prison relic in Northern Ireland, now being put to better use as the home of the Belfast Distillery Company, working to revive the classic old McConnell’s Whisky brand and creating a major new hospitality and tourist attraction in the process. We stop for “just the one” in this all-too brief episode, where CEO John Kelly lays out the twin goals for the distillery: “Restore the legend of McConnell’s Irish Whisk...

Join us as we get “Lost Outside of Belfast” when we take a 25-minute cab ride from the city center to Hinch Distillery in bucolic County Down. With Head Distiller Will Stafford as our guide, we explore the sensory journey of whiskey making from the meticulous process of mashing, fermentation, and distillation to savoring the heady aromas of the “angels’ share” seeping from the aged wooden barrels shacked ceiling-high in the cavernous Hinch whiskey warehouse. Next, Claire McLernon guides us th...

Gerry knows gin from his time behind the bar and from sipping his favorite tipple from the other side of the stick. But he found his perfect gin, though he could imagine just how it would taste, a taste he finally captured in his now award-winning Jawbox Gin. Join us as Gerry tells us how the idea for creating a gin just wouldn’t let him go, the Belfast stories behind the Jawbox name and striking logo design, how he managed to time the Jawbox launch just as the gin category was taking off,...

Our Irish Stew Drinks Party is back with PJ Rigney, founder of The Shed Distillery--home of the breakout star of the burgeoning Irish gin category, Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, along with its Sausage Tree Irish Vodka, and Drumshanbo Irish Whiskey. The magic happened when PJ rolled the dice after an innovative career in the global drinks industry to strike out on his own. “To build a distillery is one thing, to create the product is another thing, but to create a way of communicating to consu...

Settle in for a spirited episode of Irish Stew with two pioneering women in the Irish spirits industry, Alice Carroll--the proud Limerick distiller and co-founder of Foxes Bow Whiskey, and Maura Clare--the Queen of Poitín and creator of the Smuggling Nun brand. They swap notes on their journey into the spirits business, the challenges and opportunities of operating in traditionally male-dominated sectors, their innovative approaches to reviving and reshaping perceptions around Irish Whiskey and...

Michael Meade spent over 20 years on Wall Street and then stepped away from the pressured world of high finance to do something totally different. Some, in his circumstances, may have opted for plenty of time on the golf course and cracking open a few brews, that’s not the kind of person Michael Meade is. Intrigued by a visit to Ireland, Michael wanted to build a business that would connect to his Irish roots, work with a famous brewing dynasty, revive Ireland's oldest brewing brand and return ...

In the first of our “Irish Libations” series, we welcome Michael McKillop, who branched out from the 36-year-old Glens of Antrim Potatoes business to launch Glens of Antrim Distillery with its Lir line of Irish Whiskeys, amidst bucolic surroundings in Cushendall, Northern Ireland. We get a professional’s view of the growing, shipping, and marketing of Ireland’s favorite crop, and how his company is taking on the potato crisp business with its Glens of Antrim and Shindig brands with creative new...