Former senior Elan executive Séamus Mulligan has emerged as a backer of the new Waterford Distillery project that this year moved on to the site of the old Diageo plant on Waterford Quays.

Mulligan, who also picked up a few million bob when he merged Azur Pharma with Jazz, is a local lad and was attracted by the prospect of investing in his home town.

A Mulligan family vehicle is prominent among an assortment of Scottish nobles, maths geniuses,and real-estate company bosses backing the new distillery via a UK-registered vehicle.

Waterford Distillery is the brainchild of UK drinks industry investor Mark Reynier, who set it up with some of the team he used to build up the Scottish distillery Bruichladdich, later sold to Remy Cointreau.

Mulligan, meanwhile, has vast experience in companies that develop medicines. Most whiskey drinkers know the medicinal benefits of a drop of the pure . . . as long as you don’t exceed the recommended dose.