Inspired by a Belfast success story: how the grandson of a Mid Ulster emigrant created the ‘champagne of ginger ales’

At the tail end of the 19th century, bustling Belfast was at the very centre of the world’s soft drinks trade, shipping its sought-after bottles of fizz in vast quantities to far-flung corners of the globe. And the man chiefly responsible for the city’s outstanding success was Dublin-born chemist Thomas Cantrell, whose inspired creation of ginger ale was one of the foundations of a formidable drinks empire he ran from Castle Place with partner Henry Cochrane.