An Argentinian liqueur named after a Clare town has revitalised cultural icon Che Guevara’s ties with the Banner County and could see the beverage stocked in local pubs and off-licences.
The liqueur, described by one Clare man as “similar to Baileys”, is produced by two Argentinian women in Rosario, the birthplace of Ernesto Guevara, an ambitious and learned medical student that later developed into “Che”, the fearsome Guerrilla leader and the face of Western communism.
After developing the liqueur in 2019, the two women coincidentally decided to name it ‘Kilkee’, after the Clare coastal town and at the time were completely unaware of the link between Che Guevara and Ireland. Neither of the women had any connection to Ireland at the time. Che visited the Marine Hotel in Kilkee in the summer of 1962, on a stopover between Moscow and Cuba.
Two years ago, Kilkee resident Fionnuala Murnane spotted the bottle of liqueur online, informing Tom Byrne, who established the annual Ché do Bheatha festival in Kilkee in 2011, which celebrates the fabled connection.
Kilkee resident and teacher Anthony Di Lucia, managed to get a hold of four bottles of the liqueur, and since a direct line of communication has been established with the women in Rosario, plans are in place to bring them over for the next festival.
“Valeria, one of the Argentinian women, is a graphic designer and since the connection between the liqueur, Che and Kilkee has been made, they have decided to add a Shamrock to the label,” Di Lucia told The Clare Echo.
