Quote Originally Posted by wayneb

But with only three commercial distillers licensed for export out of Ireland these days, how do you get your hands on a proper selection of single-malts from there? I enjoyed some of the Irish single malts that I tried when I was in Ireland (back in the 80's -- too long a time ago), but I've never seen any of them on the shelves at my local Liquor stores.

Pot still labels like Connemara are still better than the blended excrement, such as baseline Jameson's, Tullamore Phew, and Bushmill's bland, that most folks mistake for Irish whiskey -- and I can get some locally. (I will update with a note here that I have not tried Bushmill's single malts. The Black is a tolerable blend, but if I should spend the extra $$ for a 12 or 16 year old Bushmill's malt IYO, I'll give 'em a shot sometime.)
I found the Bushmills 10 and 16 year old single malts in my local liquor store about a month ago. The 10 was $35/fifth and the 16 was I think $47. I opted for the 10 (green label) and was verrrrrrry pleased!

Lew Bryson had a great interview with the distiller from Bushmill on his STAG blog a while back. He goes into the differences between malt whisky, pot distilled and grain spirits and how the different distillers go about building the different types. Bryson also recently interviewed the distiller from Jamesons but hasn't got that one posted yet.