ON THIS DAY: 12th July 1785: WHISKEY GALORE IN LETTERKENNY!!

The Freeman’s Journal on the 17th October 1785 had the following advertisement displayed:

“The Commissioners of his Majesty’s Revenue having received information upon oath, that on the night of the 12th July last, the cellar of Alexander Hawes, Officer of Excise in the town of Letterkenny, which is made use of as a store for seized goods, was broke open, and thereabout taken nine Hogsheads and one half Hogsheads of Whiskey, which had been seized and lodged there by the Seizing Officer.

The Commissioners do hereby offer a reward of Fifty Pounds to any person or persons who shall effectually discover and prosecute to conviction any of the offenders concerned in the said rescue and robbery, the person who originally instigated the same excepted.

By order of the Commissioners, VAUN. MONTGOMERY, See, Excise Office, Dublin, Oct. 12th, 1785”

The fact that they were stolen in July and they were still looking for it in October means it was very unlikely the whiskey was ever returned…