For John Teeling's Cooley Distillery, which is producing the whiskey, this is a significant deal. The planned roll-out of Michael Collins for the first year is 38,000 cases, of which 7,000 will be single malt and the balance a blended whiskey. And Sidney Frank, the American distributor of the new brand, has an unusually strong track record.

The way in which Sidney Frank propelled Grey Goose premium vodka to a spectacular performance in just a few years is now drinks industry legend. The company eventually sold the Grey Goose brand for $2bn to Bacardi in 2004. Attempting another market coup with whiskey was the idea of company chairman Sidney Frank, who died last week at the age of 84.

Frank took a fancy to the idea of a Michael Collins whiskey after seeing the 1996 film starring Liam Neeson, and he met Teeling about a year ago to discuss his notion.

Collins biographer Tim Pat Coogan was roped in as historical consultant on the project. Coogan penned the blurb on the bottles, which notes that the "heroic spirit" of Collins lives on in the whiskey.

Promoting ultra premium brands is Sidney Frank's speciality and the Michael Collins whiskey will be positioned in this category, according to Sidney Frank creative director Bill Henderson. One of the selling points will be that the whiskey is produced by an independently-owned Irish distillery, he said.

"If we went in and did a Jameson-type brand, we would basically be just another Irish brand."

Whiskey has been undergoing something of a renaissance in the US, as younger drinkers seek out drinks different to their parents' favoured tipples of vodka and gin. The Irish whiskey market in the US is estimated to have grown by over 15% last year, compared to 6% growth for Scotch. The Irish whiskey market in the US has now grown to more than 550,000 cases, according to Henderson. Pernod Ricard's Jameson has been growing by 9-10% annually in the US for about 15 years.

The US is now the fastest growing Irish whiskey market in the world, though other noteworthy Irish whiskey enthusiasts include drinkers in France, Spain and Bulgaria. Scotch has been popular in Spanish discos for years, and Irish whiskey is a more recent fad there. Oddly, in Bulgaria, Irish whiskey has a 10% market share, compared with its average 3% market share globally.

For Michael Collins, the target market is 21 to 24-year old males and females who are "young, educated, savvy", according to Henderson, and at "people who love to go out and enjoy themselves, go to bars, go to clubs".

The packaging, complete with a picture of Collins and replicas of his signature, is clearly aimed at patriotic Irish Americans.

The ad campaign will run in the Irish Voice, the Irish Echo, the Irish Immigrant, the Irish Herald and the Irish America magazine. It will also be carried in Forbes, USA Today and Business Week, as well as in industry publications Market Watch magazine and Beverage Media.

Sidney Frank will also do tie-ins with Irish American charities and special events, Henderson said. It will be targeting thousands of Irish bars in the US, and Michael Collins is likely to feature at up to 400 St Patrick's Day parties.

"We're going to do the full blast, go out there with point of sale and hit the bars, " Henderson said.

Sidney Frank has not tended to approach bar promotions half-heartedly. It managed to turn German liqueur Jagermeister into an unlikely American success by hiring 1,200 young women and men - christened Jagerettes and Jagerdudes - to promote the brand in bars across the country.

Back in the Cooley Distillery in Co Louth, things are busy. Modifications have been made to the production facility to facilitate the new contract, and 12,000 bottles of Michael Collins are now being bottled daily, according to managing director David Hynes.

The first tastings were held for the Americans in April last year, and the blend agreed four months later, Hynes said. To achieve a differentiated flavour, a substantially higher than average proportion of the whiskey has been aged in bourbon casks, and both the malt and the blend contain some 10 and 12-year-old whiskey.

As part of the ultra premium packaging, the bottles, which are sourced from Chong Qing in China, are similar in shape to champagne bottles, with long gold caps.

The 750ml bottle of blended whiskey will retail at $26.99 and the single malt at $39.99, according to Henderson.

Hynes has high hopes for the whiskey. The market is there to be won in the US if it is targeted properly, he said, and he predicts that Sidney Frank will get to people who never thought of drinking Irish whiskey before.

"The US is the hot market for spirits at the moment, " he said. "It is all anyone wants to talk about. It's a good market because the pricing is strong and the consumer is prepared to try new things.

Some Irish whiskey drinkers in Ireland would rather be shot than change their brand, whether it is good, bad or indifferent."