Frongoch: The internment camp for Irish Republicans in Merionethshire

My great-grandmother, Nora Fitzpatrick, raised 6 children & ran a successful furniture business on Liffey St, Dublin. Travelled alone to Frongoch to secure the release of her son after 1916 rising.
Recognising women's achievements not in the history books. Happy #NollaigNamBan pic.twitter.com/aagCwqdD4R

— Niamh O'Reilly (@DrNiamhOReilly) January 6, 2023

This tweet popped up in my feed and I wondered what or where 'Frongoch' was.

It sounded Welsh and, sure enough, Wikipedia explains:

Frongoch internment camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War and the 1916 Easter Rising.

[In] 1916 the camp housed German prisoners of war in a yellow distillery and crude huts, but in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, the German prisoners were moved and it was used as an internment camp for approximately 1,800 Irish republicans, among them such notables as Michael Collins, who were accorded the status of prisoners of war.

That entry goes on to say that the camp was emptied in December 1916 when Lloyd George replaced Asquith as prime minister.

The video below, which is in Irish Gaelic with English subtitles, is the start of a documentary on the Frongoch camp,

I was intrigued, not just by the existence of the camp, but also by the fact that it was on the site of whisky distillery.

Welsh whiskies have been distilled and sold in recent years, but was there a whisky industry there early in the 20th century?

Another Wikipedia article spreads some light:

Manufacturing of whisky in Wales declined during the nineteenth century, with the commercial development of liquor discouraged by the rise of the temperance movement. 

The last notable distillery was established by R. J. Lloyd Price in 1887 at Frongoch. His company, the Welsh Whisky Distillery Company, was not a success and was sold in 1900 to William Owen of Bala for £5000. The company was finally liquidated in 1910.

The site of the distillery and camp is today occupied by a Welsh-language school.