His shop at 63 Henry St. Kilrush was a key part of the local community and the only place where you could buy J.J.'s pride whiskey, "Corry's Special Malt." It was available by the glass for 3 pennies or by the jar.
As one of the many middle children on a farm of thirteen children J.J. knew the family farm would go to his eldest brother, so from an early age he had one eye on the world beyond the farm gates. He dabbled in auctioneering for a while before he set up shop in 1890.
Once he acquired the premises on Henry Street, J.J. married the girl from the pub next door, and set about developing his own brand based in his multitude of interests. The town of Kilrush was a busy international port in the 1890s and J.J. would purchase goods from all over the world directly from the ships’ captains.
Kilrush, now a sleepy rural town, once bustled with the trade that came to the pier at the end of the street. He sold tea from India, rum from the Caribbean, wine from France, and port from Portugal in addition to musical instruments, guns, ammunition, and bicycles.
J.J. was clearly never one to settle and accept the status quo. As the social secretary of the town cycling club, he even went as far as designing, building and selling his own bicycle, ‘The Gael’, after which we named our first whiskey. It was for his select whiskey that J.J. Corry was to become best known—but J.J. was a whiskey maker whose expertise began after the distilling process.
As a tireless entrepreneur, J.J. realised that he could create his own whiskey to a high standard by carefully blending the spirits from distillers across the county of Clare and beyond. This process of careful curation enabled J.J. Corry to elevate the standard of spirit he sold. J.J. become known for producing whiskey of complexity and notable flavour that people would cycle, sail and ride quite the distance to acquire.