Irish Whiskey Vs Scotch

As much as one can generalize, Irish whiskey distinguishes itself from Scotch whisky in two obvious ways. It is almost always triple distilled (rather than double) for greater smoothness. Secondly, peat is almost never burned to arrest germination of its constituent barley—so smokiness is not one of its characteristic flavours. Taken together, they help make Irish whiskey singularly approachable. They also once made it the world’s most popular spirit: both Queen Elizabeth I and Peter the Great were loyal fans. But U.S. prohibition dealt a near death blow to the industry in the 1920s, and what’s left is now largely in the hands of Diageo, Beam, and Paris-based Pernod Ricard.
Source