30 March 2020
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Have you tried to buy hand sanitiser / sanitizer recently? The shelves are bare in most shops, and online it is mostly sold out. Indeed, online retailers such as boots.ie have implemented a virtual queuing system just to browse their website to manage the high levels of traffic, and that’s before you can even add something to your cart.
Click to zoom: Boots.ie has a virtual queuing system just to view the site
Fortunately, Ireland has a network of bricks-and-mortar businesses which can produce, distribute, and retail the much needed product.
> 
Clonakilty Distillery – who normally manufacture whiskey – recently started production of hand sanitiser. The first batch of product has now rolled off the production lines in the West Cork town and is available for purchase locally. The Next Door Off-licence at O’Donovan’s Hotel, Pearse Street, Clonakilty, West Cork are retailing bottles for a very reasonable price of €12 for 500ml. Off-licences, along with food stores, newsagents and certain other businesses are allowed to keep their doors open during the COVID-19 lockdown.
As the product was produced in a distillery at short notice is has the side benefit of coming in a beautiful glass bottle with a metal cap.
Clonakilty Distillery also supplied batches of the product to a local Meals on Wheels group.
It was reported in recent weeks that other distilleries across the globe are also switching to producing hand sanitisers. The first batches are typically being donated to frontline health services, while a remaining amount heads for retail shelves.
