Free Republic

After generations of his family spent their lives as outlaws for making the infamous Irish poitín, Pádraic Ó Griallais has finally been able to carry out the family business in the open just under a decade after the spirit was outlawed. Taking a career break from his job as a high school teacher to establish a new business based on his old family recipe, Ó Griallais is free to produce and sell the highly alcoholic spirit as he pleases without the interference of the Gardaí [Irish police], who hounded the previous poitín distillers in his family with raids to put...

A man who burned to death in his home died as a result of spontaneous combustion, an Irish coroner has ruled. West Galway coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin said it was the first time in 25 years of investigating deaths that he had recorded such a verdict. Michael Faherty, 76, died at his home at Clareview Park, Ballybane, Galway on 22 December 2010.... Deaths attributed by some to "spontaneous combustion" occur when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition. Typically police or fire investigators find burned corpses but no burned furniture. An inquest in Galway...