“I’m looking forward to doing a good day’s work, day in day out, and to keeping the story of Irish coopers and the tradition alive,” Derek Cronin said.

The 41-year-old father of four, from Ardmore in Co Waterford, has just completed his four-year apprenticeship under fifth generation master cooper Ger Buckley, and taken up his role as a cooper at Irish Distillers’ expanding Midleton Distillery, which produces some of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys.

Coopers are central to the production of Irish whiskey, with wooden casks influencing up to 60% of the liquid’s quality and playing a key role in the maturation, aroma, and flavour of the final product.

It is a very specialised skill that has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years and has been passed down through generations.

Derek will be part of the very small and highly-skilled team responsible for the repair and maintenance of Midleton’s vast stock of over 2m wooden casks, and other various coopering and cask-related work. 

Derek completed his four-year apprenticeship under fifth generation master cooper Ger Buckley.

“Having trained and worked as a carpenter, I’ve always had a passion for the craft and working with tools,” he said.

“When I joined Irish Distillers, I was immediately struck by Ger’s skill and knowledge and really admired his passion for the ancient craft of coopering. It’s what inspired me to train as a cooper.

“It has been a privilege to work so closely with Ger over the last four years, learning about the craft and the history.

“I look forward to continuing to learn from him and expanding my knowledge and skills.”

After sitting his Leaving Certificate in 2000, Derek began a carpentry apprenticeship with Tim Pat Crowley in Midleton, working mainly on roofing, before he went out on his own. When the recession hit, he worked with his father, Michael, on forestry across Munster but decided in late 2011 to emigrate to Australia for what was meant to be just six-months.

That became seven years, during which he worked with Irish firm, Quickway, one of the largest builders of transport and utilities infrastructure in Australia, using his carpentry skills on large-scale work for several huge road and bridge projects.

He worked in mines and on high-rise buildings and got Australian citizenship, before he returned home in 2016, and began working with Hegarty’s for a few years before securing a general operative role with Irish Distillers in 2019.

As he drove forklifts, and filled and emptied casks, he became fascinated with the cooperage, and when a rare coopering job was advertised, he went for it.

“I really missed working with wood, and working with my hands. I was reading the job description, I thought ‘I tick all those boxes, this is the job for me’.

“And I went for it,” he said.

In 2020, he embarked on his apprenticeship with Ger, and was trained in both the traditional manual techniques and in the modern techniques employed by cooperages around the world, marrying heritage and innovation to ensure the art of the ancient craft continues.

The apprenticeship allowed Derek to work in cooperages in Scotland, France, and Spain, where he broadened his coopering skills and knowledge, and was later registered with the Scottish Cooperage Federation.

Ger said training him was a wonderful experience.

“His background in carpentry enabled him to hit the ground running and he has truly immersed himself in every aspect of the craft since the beginning, ensuring that the future of this age-old craft is in safe hands,” he said.

Derek also paid tribute to Ger.

“Ger has coopering blood in his veins,” he said.

“It has been a great experience to work with him, I am honoured to have had the opportunity to do it.

“He has been amazing, showing me every trick in the trade.

“I’ve been trained in the ancient skills and in modern techniques.

“I’ve learned so much from him. I’m learning every day and hope to continue learning from him for a long time to come.”

Master coopers hand down their tools from one generation to the next and Ger has presented some of his family’s coopering tools to Derek.

The art of coopering is an ancient craft that few still practice today.

Like most historic trades, new members were recruited through the system of apprenticeship.

Traditionally, only the sons or male relatives of a cooper could be apprenticed which meant the trade was a ‘closed shop’ and restricted to certain families only.

But this has changed.

In 2019, Killian O’Mahony, who was 26 at the time, became the first newly-qualified cooper appointed by Irish Distillers to its Midleton Distillery in 40 years, following in the footsteps of his great great grandfather, Batt Ahern, who was the distillery’s blacksmith almost a century ago.

Whiskey has been distilled in Midleton since the 1700s, with Midleton Distillery today producing Irish whiskeys including Jameson, Powers, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, the Spot family, and Method and Madness.

In 2022, the company announced plans to build a state-of-the-art distillery on a 55-acre site next to, and connected to, Midleton Distillery. Once operational, it will create up to 100 jobs, over time.

The company has also since 2010 invested hundreds of millions of euro in the expansion of its production and bottling capacity, and in its operational efficiency.

It recently reopened its rebranded Midleton Distillery Experience, which has the potential to welcome more than 200,000 visitors annually.

This article originally appeared here in the Irish Examiner