American billionaire and Trump donor gets green light for distillery in Kilkenny

Permission has been granted by Kilkenny County Council for a 'barley to bottle' whiskey distillery at Castletown Cox Estate in County Kilkenny - an estate bought by Texan oil billionaire Kelcy Warren in 2019.

According to planning documentation submitted to Kilkenny County Council, the proposed development 'is a personal private project for Castletown Cox Estate and is not a commercial enterprise'.

The documentation further notes: "The Castletown Cox Estate has a unique concept for the production of its own Irish whiskey from barley to bottle.

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"The barley will be grown on the Castletown Cox Estate and harvested there. The harvested barley will be malted in a malting house adjacent to the distillery building. The malted barley will be germinated and fermented in the brew house, before being triple distilled in the still house and casked in oak barrels.

"The whiskey will be stored in the oak casks until it has reached the required maturity and it will then be bottled and labeled, identifying their origin in the Castletown Cox Estate.

"Castletown Cox will then become the only distillery in Ireland where every step of the process from barley to bottle will be carried out on the same site. It is not intended to sell the whiskey commercially."

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Earlier this month, it was also revealed that Kelcy Warren is the mystery investor behind the €30 million plan to extend Waterford Airport’s runway.

This would see the new Waterford Airport company and its assets come under the control of the US billionaire.

Mr Warren is the single largest shareholder in the US firm Energy Transfer and has an estimated net worth of €6bn.

His company operates more than 200,000 kilometres of oil and natural gas pipelines in the United States.

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Warren has been a steadfast supporter of US President Donald Trump throughout his time in politics.

He has donated millions of dollars to the MAGA movement over the years, including to the Trump campaign in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Kilkenny County Council granted permission for the Kilkenny distillery, subject to 19 conditions, in December 2025.

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