Wow, great thread !!! I've enjoyed reading through this.
It's interesting that I was just reading about the Irish poteen makers, and the photo shown was from 1885. It in fact said that the Irish have long had a reputation as hard drinkers, and that their habit of drinking poteen ( pronounced po-cheen - a roughly distilled potato whiskey) earned them some of their reputation for being hard fighters.
Also, (cyseymour) if you like Irish artwork check out The Book of Kells, located in the Trinity College Dublin. It's an amazing group of manuscripts created in Ireland and Northern Britian between the seventh and tenth centuries (if you can't make it to Ireland, grab the book by Bernard Meehan titled "The Book Of Kells"
). The artwork is amazing.
Sorry for getting off track....great thread !!!
Sincerely, Clayton