26
Number of whiskey distilleries in Ireland, up from just three distilleries in the 1980s. The demand for Irish whiskey in the U.S. has tripled in the last ten years from 1.38 million cases to 4.7 million cases. The latest distillery to meet demand, Roe & Co., owned by Diageo, opened this summer in Dublin. The distillery is named after 19th century Irish whiskey-maker George Roe who was the largest whiskey exporter at the time.