Mom always said:
Jameson: Catholic
Bushmills: Protestant
Last St. Patrick’s Day, I went to get a bottle of Jameson for the Irish coffee. I got the last one, although there was plenty of Bushmills still on the shelf.
We call Jameson “the Catholic whiskey”, too!
I once had an Irish-American waitress berate me for ordering Bushmill’s; it isn’t just your mom who considers it a Protestant whiskey. The funny part is that I ordered it with a Bass chaser, and the waitress was more offended by the Protestant whiskey than the English beer.
Next round, I ordered a Jameson’s as a gesture of reconciliation, like wearing both green and orange on St. Patrick’s Day.