Two centuries ago

20 Aug 1778

An extensive and uncommon system of fraud was yesterday discovered on Dame Street. At the rere of a house in that street, under some warehouses which are entered from Sycamore Alley, a clandestine distillery was found at work. The place in which the still was placed is a vault thrown over the River Poddle, and only to be entered by a trap door. So singular an occurrence engaged a good deal of public attention and many persons descended to view the place. But the hot steam of the distillery, the nephric vapours of the vault, and the filthy odour of the Poddle, formed such a compound of smells as to overcome everything like curiosity.

—Hibernian Journal, August 20, 1778.

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