A brewing battle looms in historic Boyne Valley

Pat Cooney’s Boann Distillery and Boyne Brewhouse will cost €20 million to build

Pat Cooney, chief executive of Boann Distillery and Visitor Centre: ‘The interest in Irish whiskey is just phenomenal’. Picture: Andrés Poveda

In 2012, at the age of 65, Pat Cooney sold the drinks company he had built up over 40 years in a deal that netted him and his family over €12 million.

For most people, that would have triggered a long and happy retirement. Instead, Cooney is pouring his time, energy – and money – into a new whiskey distillery and craft beer brewery in his home town of Drogheda in Co Louth.