Whisky Galore

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At first, the authorities were not hugely concerned. The eight cases containing the money were first reported to be covered in fuel and water; then presumed swept away by the seas. At one point, the head of the salvage operation was said to have given a few away as souvenirs.

Strictly speaking, this English stance on freedom has as little to do with genuine freedom as libertarianism has to do with true liberty. In both cases there is a certain insularity and bigotry that merely opposes the outsider who seeks to interfere in their lives, however well-meant. There followed a second, attempted, land-borne salvage operation, with the police raiding villages and crofts in an effort to recover the liquid cargo – and the locals secreting their ill-gotten gains wherever they could. Or else they just drank them.

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The cargo belongs to the Customs officials by rights, but that does not stop the islanders from gleefully stealing it, rather than allowing it to sink in the ocean and be lost. This is highly illegal, and they must contend with customs officials and the local rich busybody, Paul Waggett. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular whisky books out there, covering everything from Japanese whisky to taste maps. The Way of Whisky – Dave Broom

Religious conflicts play a small part here. One island is Protestant and the other Catholic. A Catholic matriarch is disapproving of Protestants, and almost everything else. The islanders take their religion seriously enough to reluctantly put off stealing the whisky on the Sabbath, but not to the tune of temperance. By 1958, the Crown Agents made a final tally: of the 290,000 notes, 211,267 had been recovered; 2,329 had been presented in banks all over the world, including the US, Switzerland, Ireland, Malta and – of course – Jamaica; and the Agents estimated that about two-thirds of these had been presented ‘in good faith’. There are a couple of other strands, both regarding romances. One is of an English soldier who has returned to the islands to claim the girl he proposed to a few years earlier, before he was posted abroad. But before they get married, they must have the ritual rèiteach – a kind of pre-wedding party. This leads to the running joke that I swear must have been repeated at least fifty times – that the Englishman can’t pronounce the Gaelic word rèiteach. He’s not alone – nor can I, but nonetheless the humour wore thin after the first dozen times he attempted it and failed. The islanders can’t imagine a rèiteach without whisky though, and so the couple can’t wed till the drought is over. Rawlings, Roger (2017). Ripping England!: Postwar British Satire from Ealing to the Goons. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-6733-7.This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. The authorities, however, did not share this view, not least because the whisky was destined for the United States – and so no duty had been paid on it. Then, the saints be praised, a miracle happens! A liberty ship breaks up off the coast filled with 5,000 or 50,000 cases of whisky (estimates varied!) bound for New York! The islanders are in a race against time to unload this bounty before various officials and the military arrive to rescue this glorious treasure from the ship and the islanders. That’s all the plot I’ll reveal – np spoilers!

In 2009 Whisky Galore! was adapted for the stage as a musical; under the direction of Ken Alexander, it was performed at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. [88] In June 2016 a remake of the film was premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; Eddie Izzard played Waggett and Gregor Fisher took the role of Macroon. [89] The critic Guy Lodge, writing for Variety, thought it an "innocuous, unmemorable remake" and that there was "little reason for it to exist". [90] In contrast, Kate Muir, writing in The Times thought "the gentle, subversive wit of the 1949 version has been left intact". [91] See also [ edit ] A Protestant happily changes his religion to take some of the strain off marrying a Catholic, and his mother is glad enough to see him going to church at all, even if it is not her own church. In this scene, we see the history of why some religions are said to be fast-growing. Often it is not a matter of religious inspiration so much as personal pragmatism. Seventy-five years ago today, on the morning of 5 February, 1941, the SS Politician was heading north past the Outer Hebrides, having cast off from Liverpool two days earlier. Its final destinations? Kingston, Jamaica, and New Orleans. I am in two minds about this book, for I am sure that had I read it in print or on kindle, I would have given it 3 stars only, but the awesome narration by David Rintoul, whom I just cannot praise highly enough!!, rendered it much more enjoyable. His style and Scottish accents delighted my Scotland-loving ears and soul and I could have gone on listening for an ever longer period. As stated, the book is charming, filled with Scots Gaelic speech with a glossary at the end for Sassenachs who speak no Gaelic (like “Muggles” in Harry Potter). It describes island life and island attitudes and beliefs, from the deep importance of whisky in Scots’ lives to encounters with various kinds of “Little People” and Skerries – seals who come on land and become people, but who can also return to the sea as seals!We are introduced to a great cast of quirky characters on both islands with their side stories, including 2 "romances". And David Rintoul did full justice to the different voices and accents as well as to the Gaelic phrases (not that I am any expert on that!). The action is set on the two fictional Scottish islands of Little and Greater Todday. It might be an exaggeration to say that they are a whisky-based culture, but certainly whisky is an important social oil in this place.