"Your Synge story about the peelers enjoying a slug or two, or more, of the poteen they were about to confiscate from the poor Connemara folk", writes an old newspaper colleague, "reminds me of the story of the Russians and the poteen. Many years ago, we had out home to dinner two or three visiting men from Tass or Pravda, or a mixture of the news agency and the newspaper. And at the end of the meal we did what we usually did with visitors from abroad we told them there was an almost lethal Irish spirit, illegally produced, and with a long history, and of which we had a small amount. Would they like to taste it - only a thimbleful or so?
Yes, they would. A couple of them sipped and were polite about it. One roared - with pleasure. "Just the stuff we used to make in wartime", he said. "More, more please". He downed quite a respectable amount, which he carried well. He had fought at Leningrad and had lost a leg.
Of course, if you had to have poteen, this was good stuff. From a western area where it was, according to the source of supply, never the subject of Garda harassment, because the people made it only for themselves. There was no trade in it. No awful additives. "And", said this friend, "if you called at any house around Christmas, you are automatically and without any of the will-you-have-a-drink palaver, handed a glass of the stuff."
"And when the bottle from which our Russian friend got so much pleasure came into my possession, it was in this manner. The friend from the west came into the office, and when, as a present and a curio, he planked the bottle down on the table, he delivered the immortal words: "The best of stuff. Made last Thursday'.
"Nowadays, it seems, if you're caught with poteen in your house, it is as bad as harbouring an Armalite. But not so long ago there was still a certain air of respectability about it, or an effort to make it respectable.
Did not Charlie Haughey suggest that it could be legalised and controlled, and might be a hit, particularly in the United States?"
Our newspaper colleague who wrote the letter wonders what happened to the Russian hero. Or if he ever got another drop of the stuff. After all, the best of it is made from the healthiest of Irish produce. It was all a long time ago, and the man who said: "The best of stuff. Made last Thursday," is now a significant figure in Irish public life.