The story goes that one winter night in 1943, a flying boat bound for America turned back to Foynes, County Limerick, in bad weather. Chef Joe Sheridan warmed the tired passengers with coffee, whiskey and sugared cream.
The drink followed Sheridan when the base closed in 1945 and the staff moved to Rineanna, now Shannon Airport. A travel writer, Stan Delaplane, tasted it there and took the idea to the Buena Vista bar in San Francisco, which hired Sheridan in 1952.
Foynes now has a flying boat museum with an Irish coffee lounge. The origin story has no primary record, and similar drinks existed earlier.
Irish coffee
How it's made. Irish whiskey and at least a teaspoon of sugar are stirred into black coffee; thick cream is poured over the back of a spoon to float on top.1
How it's served. The coffee is drunk through the layer of cream.
What the record says
- Joe Sheridan, head chef at the Foynes flying-boat terminal, is credited with adding whiskey to passengers' coffee in 1942 or 1943.1,2
- Sheridan was born in 1909 in Castlederg, County Tyrone, and applied to Brendan O'Regan for the Foynes chef job in 1943 with the line 'I'm the man for the job'.3
- When Foynes closed in October 1945, Sheridan and the catering staff moved to Rineanna, now Shannon International Airport.3
- Journalist Stanton Delaplane says he worked with San Francisco's Buena Vista Cafe to start serving Irish coffee on 10 November 1952; Sheridan later emigrated to work there.1,3
- In 1952 cases of Irish whiskey shipped to a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg came with an Irish coffee recipe for delegates.2
- Similar drinks predate Irish coffee, such as the 19th-century French 'gloria'.1
- Sheridan died in 1962 and is buried near San Francisco.3
The 1943 origin rests on tradition; RTÉ's writer frames it as 'the story goes' with no primary source, and the year is given as 1942 or 1943. The museum is an interested party. An Irish national standard (I.S. 417, 1988) existed but was cancelled; not used.
- Irish coffee · Wikipedia in the bibliography
- The history of Irish coffee (Brainstorm) · RTÉ, 2023 in the bibliography
- Meet Chef Joe Sheridan, Inventor of Irish Coffee · Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum in the bibliography
