Tig maith mór as moill bheag
Often a great good comes from a short delay
The Natural History of Ireland
By William Thompson, George Dickie, James R. Garrett (1856)
As Dr. Scouler has brought together the facts hearing on the wolf (Journal Geol. Soc. Dub. voL i. p. 225), I shall use his words:—"Great numbers of wolves formerly existed in Ireland, and they maintained their
ground in this country for a longer period than in any other part of the empire. Campion, whose History of Ireland was published in 1570, informs us that wolves were objects of the chase.
'They' (the Irish) 'are not,' he says, ' without wolves or greyhounds to hunt them ; bigger of bone and limme than a colt.'
A century later they appear to have been equally abundant, for we find by the journals of the House of Commons that in 1662 Sir John Ponsonby reported from the Committee of Grievances, that a bill should be brought in to encourage the killing of wolves and foxes.
Effective measures for this purpose appear to have been taken, and the wolf was at last extirpated about the year 1710. Dr. Smith, in his History of Kerry, when speaking of certain ancient enclosures, observes that ' many of them were made to secure cattle from wolves, which animals were not finally extirpated till the year 1710, as I find by presentments for raising money for destroying them in some old grand-jury books.' "
Three places in Ireland are commemorated, each as having had the last Irish wolf killed there, viz. one in the south ; another near Glenarm ; and the third (Wolfhill) three miles from Belfast.
That noble race of domestic animals the Irish wolf-dog, so successfully used in the pursuit of wolves, has, since no longer required, been neglected, and must now, I fear, be called extinct.
In reference to this animal, Dr. Scouler gives the following notice (p. 266):— "The wolf-dog must now be included in the list of lost animals, although the date of its disappearance is within the memory of people still living. This race appears to have been unknown to the Romans, although that people appear to have put a high value on British dogs. Oppian, who has given a good description of the Scotch terrier, does not notice the Irish wolf-dog.
"Perhaps the Irish wolf-dog is alluded to by Symmachus, a writer of the 4th century, who informs us that seven Irish hounds (Septem Scotii Canes) were exhibited in the circus at Rome, where they excited admiration on account of their strength and fierceness. The Irish wolf-dog was a very distinct race from the Scotch hound or wolf-dog, which resembled the Irish breed in size and courage, but differed from it by having a sharper muzzle and pendent ears."
[NOTES FROM SCROPE'S ART OF DEERSTALKING.]
Irish Wolf-dog, Irish Greyhound, Highland Deerhound, and Scotch Greyhound are the same.—p. 334. See also pp. 341, 342, for proof of Irish wolf-dog and Irish greyhound being the same. "It appears from Symmachus that in the fourth century a number of dogs, of a great size, were sent in iron cages from Ireland to Rome. • * It is not improbable that the dogs so sent were greyhounds, particularly as we learn from the authority of Evelyn and others that the Irish wolf-dog was used for the fights of the bear-garden." (p. 335).
"Judging also from the drawing of Lord Altamont's dogs given by Mr. Lambert (Linnean Transactions, vol. iii.), and from the measurement taken by him in 1790, it is evident that these wolf-dogs, as they are called, bore no resemblance whatever to the Irish greyhound, as described by Holinshed, with which also they hunted wolves, as is apparent from their broad pendulous ears, hanging lips, hollow backs, heavy bodies, smooth hair, straight hocks, drooping tails, and party colour; but were in all probability a remnant of the old Irish bloodhound, which was frequently used for tracking wolves, and which, at a later period, might have been mistaken for a species then in that country nearly, if not altogether, extinct."
Buffon mentions his having seen an Irish greyhound in France, "which appeared, when sitting, to be about five feet high, and resembled in figure the Danish dog, but greatly exceeded him in stature. He was totally white, and of a mild and peaceable disposition."—(Quoted by Scrope, p. 342.
See also Bell's British Quadrupeds, p. 241.) [For further information relative to the former abundance of wolves in Ireland, and the means adopted to prevent the export of "wolf-dogges," see O'Flaherty's West or H-Iar Connaught, published by the Irish Archaeological Society, and the Editor's notes.—ED.]
