Our Story

Welcome

Meet Our Founder

Glasnevin Irish Whiskey
Mihai Cozmin arrived in Ireland from his native Romania in 1999, in search of better opportunities and without a word of English. Through grit and determination honed in his early years as an amateur athlete, he worked his way through the IT security industry, eventually achieving master’s level qualifications and managing a global team for a large multinational company.
Shortly after arriving in Ireland, Mihai quickly fell in love with the tree-lined streets of Glasnevin, where his young children attended school.
”You know when you walk around the place, you feel like you belong there somehow, even if you haven’t been there before.”
Whilst waiting for his son and daughter to finish school, Mihai would pass the time reading about the Irish greats whose footsteps graced the cobblestones in centuries past, and whose ghosts still roam them today. From Ēamon de Valera to Daniel O’Connell, Mihai was inspired by the history that emanates from the Glasnevin streets.

A decade ago, having fallen just as heartily for whiskey as he had for Ireland and the streets of Glasnevin, Mihai turned his sights to bringing the quintessential Irish tipple to the market himself. Now, those aged casks are ready to decant, spreading the history and warmth of the Irish welcome, in bottles of the smoothest single malt triple-distilled whiskey.

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The Glasnevin Irish Whiskey Story

Glasnevin Irish Whiskey is a boutique whiskey brand based in Dublin, Ireland. Named for the welcoming streets of one of the oldest and most picturesque neighbourhoods in Dublin, Glasnevin Irish Whiskey stands on a commitment to quality and history, spreading both with every sip.
Produced with passionate whiskey drinkers in mind, Glasnevin Irish Whiskey offers both whiskey aficionados — and those who simply appreciate the quintessential Irish drink — flavour that can transport you back decades or even centuries in Irish history.

The founders of Glasnevin Irish Whiskey care deeply about the origins of the barley and grains that make up every bottle, the integrity of the distillation and aging processes that make it so smooth, and the history of one of the world’s most famous beverages. 

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Inspiration & Emigration

Ireland has a well-known history of emigration, its sons and daughters travelling far and wide in search of safety, stability and success.

Emigrants often had little to carry on their arduous journeys, having spent any savings they had on the passage abroad. What they could bring, however, were their active and enquiring minds. Irish emigrants became great writers and poets, artists and activists, even politicians and presidents.

Emigrants carried with them skills that sustained their new lives and nourished their new communities, whether in teaching, nursing, building, farming or distilling, as they still do today.

Irish men and women brought their ancient methods of distillation far and wide, recreating centuries-old steps in every corner of the globe, from Kentucky to Quebec. Their legacy can be seen in the names of great spirit houses such as Hennessey, the French cognac dynasty founded by a military officer from County Cork.

Ireland is well-known for many beverages, including porter, cider and gin, but it is most famous for whiskey. The amber drink is an integral part of Irish culture, featured in poems, songs, paintings and books, and forming a centrepiece of any get-together, wherever we are in the world.

We raise a glass of whiskey in celebration and commiseration, with friends old and new, in good times and in bad. It provides a conduit to our past, a connection to our people, and inspiration for our future.

Irish Whiskey

A Sip of History

It’s widely accepted that Western Europeans were distilling their own whiskey from about 500 AD. Over the years, the skill was mastered by Irish monks, who first wrote about it in 1405.

Their uisce beatha (meaning water of life) evolved into modern Irish whiskey, which became renowned around the world for its purity and flavour. In the 19th century, Irish whiskey was responsible for some 60% of global whiskey sales, with over 1,000 distilleries on the island of Ireland, according to Great Northern Distillery.

As Irish people travelled around the world, their traditional whiskey-making process became part of their new lives abroad, helping to spur whiskey, scotch and bourbon booms in their new home countries.

The 20th century brought great challenges to the Irish whiskey industry, from Prohibition in the United States in 1919 to economic tariffs in the UK in the 1930s. But in the last decades, Irish whiskey has seen an extraordinary resurgence, gaining global recognition and appreciation once again for its ancient provenance, exquisite flavour and international prestige.

For the Irish diaspora, though, whiskey is about much more than a process or a product. It has become a way of carrying the Irish spirit — metaphorically and literally — to new lands, connecting the past with the present, tradition with innovation, and craft with community.