Perhaps the best description of the new £1.2 million Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre came from Offaly's county manager, Mr Niall Sweeney.
He described it as an anchor in the necklace of a growing number of tourism attractions in the county and in the midlands.
The centre was officially opened on Monday by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, in the former bonded warehouse at Bury Quay on the Grand Canal.
It was, said Mr Sweeney, one of the first successful marriages between private and public money, and would encourage visitors to stay in the area.
The marriage referred to was very shaky indeed at the beginning when the main sponsor of the centre, Cantrell & Cochrane Group, which owns the building, wanted its cut of the action.
Bord Failte opposed the "Tullamore Dew" in the title and withheld public money.
Fortunately a resolution was found and this week everyone was in agreement that the money was wisely spent.
Located on the western side of the town, the centre not only has a quality museum but also contains a bar, restaurant, tourist office and conference rooms. It is also home to the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society, which is one of the finest in the State.
The centre will undoubtedly become a meeting place not only for tourists but for the local community because of the involvement of so many local bodies.
They include Tullamore Urban District Council, Offaly County Council, the local historical and archaeological society, the Offaly Enterprise Board, Offaly LEADER group and the local chamber of commerce.
The centre will be run by a limited company on behalf of the organisations involved in the project, which was initiated in 1995.
While the museum, on three floors in the renovated distillery, tells the history of Tullamore Dew and the town's strong tradition of whiskey distilling, it also chronicles the history of the town and its inhabitants.
There is a section dealing with the arrival in 1798 of the Grand Canal, which carried the town's most famous product on the first leg of its journey to most parts of the world.
The company began operating in 1829 and the name Dew came from the initials of the man who was to make it famous, Daniel Edmond Williams.
He erected, in 1897, the building in which the museum is housed.
Nearly 50 years later came the development of Irish Mist liqueur. That was developed by Daniel Edmond's grandson, Desmond Williams, who recognised the changing taste internationally for whiskey.
There at the opening was Joe Scally, the production manager at the blending plant. He began work there in 1951 and continued until production moved to Clonmel in 1997.
Kilbeggan-born Joe remembered that all the bottling was done by hand. Local women packed 18 dozen cases every day. He saw that grow to 1,000 cases a day with mechanisation.
Also at the opening was Jim Hogan, a local man, who started work as an apprentice distiller in 1943, aged 16.
"The distillery was on the land now owned by Christy Maye. That was the area around the Bridge House.
"We operated three eight-hour shifts and the wages were good," he said.
Each man, he added, was entitled to a certain amount of whiskey each day and some of the workers did not even bother to take up their allowances.
"It was never abused, even though we were surrounded by the finest of whiskey all the time.
"I enjoyed my time there and left to go to England. I came back later and worked as the water supervisor here until I retired."
The museum has hundreds of artefacts from the town, beautifully displayed and explained by Mary Ann Williams. It is interactive, with recordings of local people, the history of electricity in the town and items from the War of Independence.
There are two flags. One is a tattered Union flag which was taken from the local British army barracks by a townsman. The other is a tricolour used at the funeral of the last of the Old IRA men in the area.
The centre can be contacted at 0506-25015.