Until recently I spent a week each spring lecturing at Queen’s University in Belfast. Northern Ireland, charmingly, is one of the last jursidictions (Scotland and Hong Kong are the others) that still allow private commercial banks to issue notes. Even more charmingly, the Lanyon building at QUB where I lectured (among other things, on the benefits of private note issue) was pictured on the back of the local notes of the Bank of Ireland.

Not for long, today’s news reveals:

On the 400th anniversary of the original licence to distil whiskey granted to the Bushmills area in 1608, the Bank of Ireland today marked the moment with the launch of new banknotes that honour the brand's heritage by featuring the famous Old Bushmills Distillery in Co Antrim. …

The new notes will replace the existing series which came into circulation in 1990 and feature an image of Queen’s University, Belfast. The old series will gradually be withdrawn but will continue to circulate alongside the new notes until that is completed.

On one of my trips I visited the Old Bushmills Distillery -- and participated in a whisky taste-test. It was an educational experience. (Good thing someone else was driving that day.) If the Lanyon building has to disappear from BOI notes, I can’t think of a more suitable replacement.