Cathy McHugh and Her Innovation Placement at Powerscourt Distillery

Introducing Powerscourt Distillery

The Powerscourt Distillery, set in the garden of Ireland in Enniskerry Co. Wicklow was designed and constructed by a Scottish engineering group called Forsyths, one of the world leaders in the supply of distillation equipment. It is a classic 3 pot still distillery, allowing Powerscourt to distil, malt and potstill whiskey using both classic and traditional triple and double distillation methods. At full capacity, the distillery has the potential to distil over 3 million bottles of whiskey per year or lay down the equivalent of 40 barrels of spirit per day. For the first time in over 100 years, single malt Irish whiskey is being distilled and produced right here in the heart of Wicklow and the team at Powerscourt are dedicated to creating and crafting some of the finest Irish whiskeys for future generations to enjoy.

Cathy’s Experience in the MSc Insights and Innovation course

“My name is Cathy McHugh. I’m currently part of the MSc Insights and Innovation with Bord Bia and DCU, and I’m on placement with the Powerscourt Distillery.

I think a highlight of the course for me has been the people that’s connected me with – classmates, coaches, academics and industry experts who’ve offered us the opportunity to develop a really rich network outside of our placement organizations and also a breadth of knowledge, experience and opinion that has really, really helped all of us along the way.

The Bord Bia DCU MSc in Insights & Innovation has offered me the opportunity to really deepen my knowledge in a multitude of areas over the last 18 months; from design thinking to innovation strategy, consumer insight to sustainable enterprise. It’s equipped me with the skills to transcend raw data and derive meaningful insights.

On my time on placement with Powerscourt Distillery has really enabled me to apply those insights in a real world setting and turn the theory into tangible and impactful outcomes. I feel my placement with Powerscourt Distillery offered me exposure to all facets of business because it’s still an emerging scaling company. My placement projects included everything from a retail review to category intelligence reports for markets, and I’m currently working on a report that will deal with the pertinent sustainability issues that are facing the company both now and in the future.

I would fully recommend the DCU MSc in Insights and Innovation with Bord Bia to anyone who feels that they’re interested and are willing to contribute enough to it. My time on the course has been really rewarding. I feel that it’s impacted both my professional perspective and skill set. The people it’s connected me with have been fantastic.

My time on placement has given me the opportunity to bridge theory and contribution and really to show what an impact what I’m learning can have. It can be fast-paced. It’s dynamic and it can be demanding at times, but overall it’s a really rewarding programme.”