Irish Whiskey Industry Awards 2024 | Belfast Whiskey Week

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 27 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/036

On the evening of 27th July 2024, the Great Hall at Queen's University Belfast became the beating heart of the Irish whiskey world, as the Irish Whiskey Industry Awards 2024 were presented at the Belfast Whiskey Week Dinner. This was no ordinary gathering — it was a celebration of the people, the craft, and the sheer dedication that keeps the uisce beatha flowing from still to glass across the island of Ireland and beyond. For one remarkable evening, the industry came together under vaulted Victorian ceilings to honour its own.

About This Event

It's the Second Most Important Awards for the Irish Whiskey Industry as a Whole. The Irish Whiskey Industry Awards 2024 will be presented at this year's Belfast Whiskey Week Dinner in the historic and grand Great Hall at Queen's University. It is a great privilege to host these Awards, solely dedicated to ensuring those Individuals and Businesses within the industry are recognised and rewarded for their dedication, specialisms, contribution and value. The IWIAs set the categories and accept Industry nominations for each award then we allow the public to vote, providing an opportunity for thousands of whiskey enthusiasts and supporters to get involved. With a bespoke meal, some comedy to keep our guests entertained and plenty of whiskey heads at the Dinner, it's an event not to miss.

Looking Back

There is something quietly powerful about the Great Hall at Queen's University Belfast. Its stone-set grandeur, its sense of accumulated history, its weight of occasion — it carries the kind of duchas that makes a room feel worthy of whatever is asked of it. And what was asked of it on this July evening was considerable: to host the Second Most Important Awards for the Irish Whiskey Industry, bringing together distillers, blenders, brand ambassadors, retailers, and enthusiasts from across the island and further afield. It rose to the occasion, as it tends to do.

The Irish Whiskey Industry Awards occupy a distinctive place in the calendar. Unlike trophy competitions judged behind closed doors by a panel of experts, the IWIAs open their doors outward — categories are set, industry nominations are gathered, and then the public is invited to vote. Thousands of whiskey lovers across Ireland and the wider world had their say in deciding who would be recognised on the night. That democratic spirit gave the evening a particular warmth. Every winner carried the weight not just of peer recognition, but of genuine popular support from the community that makes this industry worth fighting for.

The dinner itself was a bespoke affair — a meal crafted to complement the occasion, with whiskey flowing in the company of what can only be described as a room full of genuine whiskey heads. Comedy kept the spirits high between announcements, and the laughter that filled the hall was as much a part of the seanchas of the evening as the awards themselves. There was real joy here, the kind that comes when an industry pauses long enough to look sideways at itself and say: look at what we've built. Sláinte to that.

Belfast Whiskey Week has long been a festival that takes pride in connecting the wider Irish whiskey story to its Ulster roots. The presence of the IWIAs at the festival speaks to that ambition. The city of Belfast is not merely a backdrop for whiskey tourism — it is an active participant in the industry's growth and its future. Hosting these awards was a statement of intent, and one made with considerable grace. For those curious about how that Ulster dimension runs through the festival's DNA, our Whiskey Map offers a sense of the broader landscape in which Belfast Whiskey Week sits.

If the awards dinner was your introduction to the world of Irish whiskey, we'd encourage you to go deeper. The festival's programme across 2024 was rich with opportunities to understand the craft behind the labels — from deep dives into individual distilleries to explorations of cask maturation and blending philosophy. Sessions like the Bushmills History MasterClass and the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass gave attendees the seanchas behind some of Ireland's most storied whiskeys. The awards, then, were not a destination — they were a door. The industry honoured here is one worth knowing.