Our story starts not with the second-largest-selling brand of Irish whiskey world-wide (Tullamore D.E.W.) — at least, not right off, but with the lads who founded it.

Michael, Anthony, John, Martha, Elizabeth, and Hannah were the Molloy kids, born to Edward Molloy and his wife, spirit merchants. As far as we can tell, Martha, Elizabeth, and Hannah grew up, wedded, and had children of their own — the traditional course of things in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sadly, John died in 1846, but Michael was a chip off the old block and founded a distillery right in the heart of Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland. Anthony joined him, and together they turned the family’s wine-and-spirit grocery trade into a proper distillery by 1829 — a date still carved over the gate on Patrick Street today (source: offalyhistoryblog)offalyhistoryblog

The Molloy saga then took a properly Victorian turn: childless Michael willed the distillery to brother John in 1841, but John predeceased him, so when Michael died in 1846 the whole business landed in the Court of Chancery, tied up among six nephews with a claim on it. Anthony bought it back at a Chancery sale in 1848 for £2,700 (something like USD $560,000 today), then died without kids, himself, in 1851. The distillery passed to nephew Bernard Daly, and eventually to a sharp young general manager, Daniel E. Williams, who took the helm in the 1870s and put his own initials on the bottle — the source of the D.E.W. initials.

Williams, it turns out, was as devoted to dogs as he was to whiskey. Tullamore D.E.W.’s own history calls him simply “a dog lover” who “passed the love down to his family,” and the brand’s U.S. ambassador has told Forbes that Williams “raised Irish Wolfhounds himself” (Tullamore D.E.W.; Forbes). Which wolfhound came first, and what she — or he — was named, hasn’t survived into the public record; the closest lead is a 2018 Irish Wolfhound Club of Ireland newsletter recalling breeder John Briggs’s claim that he once sold a wolfhound to “the original owner and founder of Tullamore Dew” (Irish Wolfhound Club of Ireland) — tantalizing, except Briggs’s own kennel wasn’t registered until the 1970s, decades after Williams died in 1921, so that anecdote likely belongs to a later Williams. What we can say for certain is that the fondness outlived him: his grandson Desmond, wanting something other than the shields and coats of arms other whiskey brands favored, commissioned an original drawing of an Irish Wolfhound in the 1950s (Shelflife Magazine) — friendly and loyal, but determined once on the hunt, just like the whiskey and the town it comes from. The Wolfhound graced Tullamore D.E.W. bottles for decades, then returned to pride of place on the label in a 2024 redesign (Shelflife Magazine).

Now the Wolfhound is strolling off the label altogether.

Tullamore D.E.W. has announced that the Irish Wolfhound long associated with its whiskey bottles is being translated into three dimensions. In a National Dog Day post (hiss, it should have been on National Purebred Dog Day’s page), parent company William Grant & Sons said a sculpture by prominent Irish artist John Coll would soon be installed at the entrance to the Tullamore D.E.W. Distillery in County Offaly. The company didn’t provide an unveiling date or an image of the completed installation, so this should presently be described as an announced or forthcoming sculpture—not finished public art.

The statue will extend a breed-and-brand relationship going back more than 70 years. According to Tullamore D.E.W.’s official history, distillery figure Daniel E. Williams was a dog lover who passed that interest to his family. When his grandson Desmond Williams assumed control, he wanted an alternative to the shields and heraldic devices commonly used by whiskey companies.

He commissioned an original drawing of an Irish Wolfhound instead.

Why a Wolfhound?

The company said that the breed’s personality was the real selling point. Their official brand history describes the wolfhound as “friendly, loyal… yet when we’re on the hunt to make the best-tasting whiskey on the planet, determined and unstoppable” (Tullamore D.E.W.) — the company wanted an animal whose reputation (gentle giant, deeply loyal, but tenacious once focused on a goal) doubled as a description of the whiskey and the town that makes it. Irish Wolfhounds consequently appeared on Tullamore D.E.W. bottles and packaging for decades. The connection became more visible in 2024, when redesigned packaging returned the Irish Wolfhound to a prominent position on the bottle.

The new sculpture takes the idea considerably further. Instead of appearing only on a label, an Irish Wolfhound will stand at the physical entrance to the distillery, greeting visitors to the place represented by the brand. The official Tullamore D.E.W. history documents the origin and meaning of the Wolfhound emblem. The forthcoming sculpture was announced by William Grant & Sons, Tullamore D.E.W.’s parent company.

Image of Irish Wolfhound by Natalia Gusakova/Unsplash