Folklore: "Gardaí seize 70 gallons of poitín in Donegal"

Saturday, 3rd April 1999

Gardaí in County Donegal have made, what they are describing, as the most significant find of poitín in the Northwest in the last twenty years. Seventy gallons of the illegal drink were discovered with raw material to make a further one hundred and seventy gallons.

The seizure came after a surveillance operation at Menaward, a townland about three miles north of Buncrana.

The illegal drink was found before noon yesterday at the bottom of a field. In all Gardaí seized seventy gallons of distilled poitín and a further five hundred gallons of wash, a raw material in the poitín making process, which would have made another one hundred and seventy gallons of the distilled drink.

The value of the find is being put at around fourteen thousand pounds. No arrests have been made but a local man is helping Gardaí with their inquiries. This is the second discovery of poitín in County Donegal in the last three months, although Gardaí in Buncrana told RTÉ today that this is by far the most significant find in the Northwest in the last twenty years.