‘Irish whiskey is on fire,” says John Callely Jr, who has poured several variations of this liquid gold into the glasses spread out before him. It’s good to see John again.

He’s a genial, charming Irishman — and he really knows his whiskey, having been in the business for decades, starting out as a teenager working weekends at the visitor centre of the old Jameson distillery in Dublin, and later teaming up with father, also John, to run escorted tours and tastings around the Emerald Isle.

A few years ago, John Jr introduced me to the new distilleries that had mushroomed in Ireland’s capital. Now, during one of his regular whiskey tasting experiences at Malahide Castle, north of the city, he’s sharing tipples from other family producers who are flourishing in more rural areas of Ireland. But first: a history lesson.

John is telling our tour group about the rise and fall and renaissance of Irish whiskey.

After booming in the 1700s and 1800s, when Ireland made twice as much whiskey as the rest of the world combined, the industry hit the buffers in the 20th century. Sales slumped due to Prohibition in America and the loss of key export markets following Ireland’s independence from Britain.

Furthermore, a reluctance to embrace new technologies saw the Irish overtaken by the whiskey makers of Scotland, a nation that remains dominant in the field to this day, though the gap between the two is slowly narrowing (almost 100 million cases of Scotch are produced annually compared to Irish whiskey’s 15 million).

“We’re growing at an enormous pace,” says John. “We’ve got 45 distilleries now across the island of Ireland, with 25 more a work in progress.”

Jameson remains the big name — it’s produced at the giant Midleton distillery in County Cork — while they’ve been making whiskey at Bushmills in Northern Ireland since 1608. We sample one of the latter’s reliably smooth 10 year single malts, but more intriguing for me are the smaller-batch offerings from the likes of Ballykeefe Distillery, set on an eco-friendly farm near Kilkenny, and Lough Ree Distillery in County Longford, where the locally-sourced peat gives a smoky tinge to its blended whiskeys, gins and vodkas.

John also gives us a whiskey liqueur to sample. Made at the Boann Distillery in County Meath, about a half-hour drive from Malahide, The Whistler is sweet, infused with honey from bees from the family orchards, and, at 33 per cent alcohol proof, easier on the palate than the other whiskeys. “They call it ‘The Whistler’ because the owner, Pat Cooney, whistles all the time,” explains John, who adds: “It’s really good over vanilla ice cream or as a glaze for chicken wings.”

Our final whiskey comes from Lambay, a private island that’s a 15-minute boat ride from Malahide marina. “Lambay has always been a mysterious place,” says John, who says it’s now an off-the-grid nature reserve, home to a colony of Atlantic grey seals, puffins and Ireland’s only wild breeding population of red-necked wallabies. Sourced on the mainland, the bourbon barrel-matured whiskey is finished on the island in cognac casks from France with a touch of Lambay volcanic well water.

Sipping it, I detect a range of different flavours, including sea salt, and all of a sudden I have an urge to visit the island. I won’t have time on this trip, but when I’m next in Dublin, it’ll be on the agenda.

+ Steve McKenna was a guest of Tourism Ireland. They have not influenced or seen this story.

fact file + Whiskey tasting experiences are staged every month at Malahide Castle. It’s €35 ($58) per person for a castle tour followed by a taste of five Irish whiskeys. See malahidecastleandgardens.ie

+ To arrange a guided whiskey tours and tastings in Dublin or around Ireland, see whiskeyisland.ie

+ To help plan a trip to Ireland, see ireland.com