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Dublin Whiskey Fire

en.wikipedia.org

51–60 of 108 posts

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#51
post #6

the idea of Irishmen drinking themselves to death in a whisky flood is... something my wee dram of Irish blood is not qualified to comment on, but it only killed a dozen people. Near twice that number died in the molasses flood in Boston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood The density of molasses is about 1.4 tonnes per cubic metre, 40% more dense than water, resulting in the molasses having a great de…

You wouldn’t think 90cm would be deep enough to cause too much trouble initially.

But imagine the cleanup.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#52
post #27

> None of the fatalities suffered during the fire were due to smoke inhalation, burns, or any other form of direct contact with the fire itself; all of them were attributed to alcohol poisoning. As an Irish person myself I've always felt the stereotype was a little overblown.. It seems I'm completely wrong. We will literally drink until we die if there is a literal river of whiskey. I don't know whether to laugh or c…

For what it's worth I don't think an incident like that would have played out any differently if it had occurred in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester or London.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#53
post #27

> None of the fatalities suffered during the fire were due to smoke inhalation, burns, or any other form of direct contact with the fire itself; all of them were attributed to alcohol poisoning. As an Irish person myself I've always felt the stereotype was a little overblown.. It seems I'm completely wrong. We will literally drink until we die if there is a literal river of whiskey. I don't know whether to laugh or c…

No, a grand total of 13 people out of an entire city population overdosed to death when given access to unlimited alcohol. I doubt any other city would do better. London sure as hell wouldn't.

I wonder how many alcohol related deaths per day a city the size of London has on a typical day.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#54
post #27

> None of the fatalities suffered during the fire were due to smoke inhalation, burns, or any other form of direct contact with the fire itself; all of them were attributed to alcohol poisoning. As an Irish person myself I've always felt the stereotype was a little overblown.. It seems I'm completely wrong. We will literally drink until we die if there is a literal river of whiskey. I don't know whether to laugh or c…

Saying a river of whiskey sounds interesting but it was more likely that they drank pure alcohol or it was simply contaminated from the journey through the city.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#55

> The fire is believed to have started in Laurence Malone's bonded storehouse on the corner of Ardee Street, where 5,000 hogsheads (262,500 imperial gallons or 1,193,000 litres or 315,200 US gallons) of whiskey were being stored... Hogsheads sound like a fictional unit of measure made up to mock the imperial system.

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#56

> The fire is believed to have started in Laurence Malone's bonded storehouse on the corner of Ardee Street, where 5,000 hogsheads (262,500 imperial gallons or 1,193,000 litres or 315,200 US gallons) of whiskey were being stored... Hogsheads sound like a fictional unit of measure made up to mock the imperial system.

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it

You beat me to it by about a minute. I went to look up a clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-s-4KPtD8

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#57
post #42
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there's a definition of a non-water fluid in this context. Would zero-calories lightly flavored seltzer count? Most people probably consider that water... But presumably hard seltzer would definitely count, as would Pepsi Max. So maybe it's a combination of factors like energy content, flavor, aroma, color, etc.

Good question actually, after all even whisk(e)y usually contains > 50% water (not sure about 19th century whiskey though). I would say: as long as it can be identified (by smell, taste or color) as non-water, it is a non-water flood. Or, better still, you could go by the source: if the flood is caused by rain, melting snow, a river, a dam failure etc. etc., it's a water flood, if it's a failed fruit juice tank, it's…

I think whisky is usually stored at "cask strength", which implies a higher concentration of alcohol, and diluted with water at bottling time.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#58
post #45

> The fire is believed to have started in Laurence Malone's bonded storehouse on the corner of Ardee Street, where 5,000 hogsheads (262,500 imperial gallons or 1,193,000 litres or 315,200 US gallons) of whiskey were being stored... Hogsheads sound like a fictional unit of measure made up to mock the imperial system.

...and a hogwart is a subdivision of the hogshead (1728 hogwarts = 1 hogshead).

That hog needs to see a dermatologist.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#59
post #27

> None of the fatalities suffered during the fire were due to smoke inhalation, burns, or any other form of direct contact with the fire itself; all of them were attributed to alcohol poisoning. As an Irish person myself I've always felt the stereotype was a little overblown.. It seems I'm completely wrong. We will literally drink until we die if there is a literal river of whiskey. I don't know whether to laugh or c…

If they didn't drink the whisky it would have burned down more houses those people are true Irish heros.

Re: Dublin Whiskey Fire

#60

This has to be the most 'Irish' mishap in history ever, perhaps. >People drank from the 6 inches (150 mm) deep river of whiskey that is said to have flowed as far as the Coombe. Can't help but laugh hysterically whilst imagining this scene. Guess I found a brand new piece of trivia to share with my Irish friends and co-workers. The Irish have been amongst the nicest and the most 'jolly' group of people I've known/wor…

Yeah, maybe don’t. I’m Irish and I’m sick to death of the stereotype of Irish as jolly drunkards. I recently went to see “The Glass Menagerie” play and the biggest (maybe only) laugh of the night was when the mother expressed surprise that an individual was “Irish on both sides but not an alcoholic”. Ha fucking ha. If I could go to the theatre and not have my nationality be the butt of lazy racist jokes that would be great, thanks.

And this isn’t harmless. I’ve worked in tech all my life, mostly outside of Ireland, and the “jolly drunkard” is certainly not a helpful stereotype when you’re trying to be taken seriously and progress in your career, I’ve experienced the unpleasant labelling myself (despite I’m teetotal) and frequently seen it applied to other Irish people.

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