system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why is Whiskey so seemingly integral to the Irish identity?

I love Irish folk music and have visited Ireland twice and I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Whiskey really is a part of Ireland.  What about it or the Irish makes the two so synonymous?  Beyond the outside perceived stereotype (if it's not just that).
gpt
Because it was more or less invented there. Distillation was invented in the east but it was used to make perfumes, not alchohol. When the Italians got their hands on the process they discovered they could distil liquor from wine and from there the process spread via the network of monasteries throughout Europe. When it got to Ireland, they made whiskey.

Trivia: Whiskey is the anglicised version of an Irish phrase, **uisce beatha** (Ishka Baha), water of life.