In 2014 Bernhard Walsh started his development of The Walsh Whiskey Distillery, maturing warehouses and a visitor centre on a 40 acre site at Royal Oak in Bagenalstown Co Carlow, South East Ireland.

The distillery became operational in March 2016 and will produce all 4 types of Irish Whiskey, pot, malt, grain and blended with the capacity to produce 400,000 cases annually. The visitor centre will cater for 75,000 whiskey tourists per year. It will generate a minimum 55 jobs for the Carlow area.

Both The Irishman and Writers Tears range of whiskies came under the "Walsh Whiskey Distillery".

The new distillery near the River Barrow is supported by funding from an Italian drinks company Illva Sarono Holding S.p.A., based near Milan, which will take a 50% share in the new company. Since 2000 the Walsh Whiskey Distillery has been in the business and produces about 40,000 cases of whiskey a year which is mostly exported. It was founded by Bernard and Rosemary Walsh from Carlow. They have marketed successfully six Irish whiskeys The Irishman and Writers Tears brands, the Hot Irishman Irish coffee and The Irishman Irish Cream liqueur. 95% of its sales are generated by exports, the growth rate over fives years was by 300%. Key markets are the United States, Scandinavia, Russia, France and Germany. The whiskeys are supplied by the Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard Midleton Distilleries, Co. Cork.

The family-owned Italian Illva Sarono Holding owns the Disaronno and Tia Maria liqueur brands.

The „Walsh - Royal Oak Distillery“ in Carlow has a capacity of 3,6 million liters of pure alcohol or 400,000 cases of whiskey per year. The warehouse capacity will be increased to 1.9 million 9-litre cases.

The distillery was built at a 40 acre site by the River Barrow near Begenalstown.

Production started in March 2016.  The first low wines ran on Good Friday and the first spirit on Easter Sunday  - one hundred years after the famous Easter Rising in Dublin. There are two production lines of three pot stills and and three column stills which will allow the production of Irish whiskey like pot still, single malt, grain and blended.

The Walsh Whiskey Distillery is also be able to produce whiskey for private labels, independent bonders and bottlers.

Augusto Reina, Illva Saronno CEO, said: “We are extremely delighted to announce the partnership with Walsh Whiskey Distillery today. With this investment, not only will Illva gain production capacity and expertise in a fast growing sector such as that of Irish whiskey - which is already showing remarkable growth rates and is expected to grow up to 12 million cases within the next five years – but it will also enable Walsh Whiskey Distillery to lean on Illva as a leading business developer both in Italy and abroad.”

Directors of the Walsh Whiskey Distillery: Bernard Walsh, Rosemary Walsh, John Kickham and Patrick Rigney (in 2013)

The €25m construction project by the banks of the River Barrow began in September 2014 on the 40 acres site at Royal Oak. The distillery development also included two maturation warehouses with capacity for 60,000 barrels and a visitor centre in the 18th century Holloden House.

The two production lines with pot stills and column stills will reach a capacity to produce 500,000 cases (two million litres of pure alcohol per year or 6 million bottles) of whiskey annually. They will distill grain, malt and pot still whiskeys. It will be one of the few Irish distilleries to distil three types of whiskey - pot still, malt and grain.

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