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HISTORY
OF THE IRISH WOLFHOUND BREED
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The
Irish
Wolfhound is the largest existing breed. In
Ireland, their homeland, they are known as “the
gentle giant”, this saying very accurately
epitomizes the noble and magnanimous personality of these
dogs. Another expression that depicts the Irish Wolfhound
truthfully is “gentle when stroked, fierce
when provoked”.
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It
is said that these giant hounds developed in the British
Isles as early as the end
of the Palaeolithic era.
The first archaeological findings with some similarity to
the current Irish Wolfhound date from 7000
BC.
Apparently the
first peoples
that arrived in what today is know as Ireland
brought with them their giant hounds
as guardians and as hunters of their provisions. Later, with
the arrival of the Celtic
tribes
from the Middle East, they may have made
the ancient giant to become their dog;
this could be the reason why the Irish Wolfhound has become
so closely related to the Celtic people. The Celts could
have crossed the giant hound with their own Greyhound-like
dogs that came with them from the Middle East.
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Stories
associated with these giant dogs living with men
in ancient Ireland date from as early as I BC.
According to several sources, the Irish Wolfhounds
(known then as Irish
Wolfdog or
Irish Greyhound)
were allowed
exclusively to kings and nobility.
The number of dogs that each person was allowed to
own varied largely with their social position. As
an example, the Filids, professional storywriters
who belonged to the lower strata of nobles were
allowed only two Wolfhounds, whilst the chief of
the Fian Army, Fionn Mac Cumall owned as much as
three hundred adult Wolfhounds and two hundred
puppies.
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It
is said that these dogs were used in battles to bring
down the enemy from carts and horses and
especially used for hunting the Irish
deer, elk and
wolves.
Ancient Irish mythology is filled with legends
about the braveness and courage of these hounds
that were very much desired and highly appreciated,
the ancient Irish Wolfhounds were frequently given
as special
gifts to foreign nobility and famous personalities.
An
old and famous legend from 1210 AD tells that prince
John of England
(who was to become King) sent an Irish Wolfhound
as a gift to
Llewellyn, King of Wales.
One day Llewelyn found Gelert,
the dog covered with blood and thinking
that the hound had killed his son,
immediately
ended the dog’s life.
Llewelyn later found out what had really happened:
Gelert had killed a
wolf that had accidentally entered the child’s
bedroom,
thus saving
his life.
In Beddgelert where the dog is buried, a monument
was built in honour to his braveness.
During
XVI and XVII century and beginning of XVIII the
practice of giving Irish
Wolfhounds
as
gifts became more and more popular.
Many hounds were sent to important personalities
from outside Ireland, such as the Great
Mogul,
the Shah
of Persia
and Cardinal
Richelieu.
Also, many hounds were sent to Spain,
and the King
of Poland took
an enormous
number
of these dogs back to
his country.
The drainage of animals outside their home country
became so intense that in 1652 the exportation of
Irish Wolfhounds was prohibited due to their
scarcity.
By
the end of the XVIII century the wolves
had become extinct in Ireland,
this together with the famines that dramatically
affected Ireland around this time and the
diminishing of the Irish Wolfhound stock due to
the big exports, resulted in the almost extinction
of the breed. Only a few families kept some hounds
as companion dogs.
In
1862 Captain
George
Graham,
a Scottish man who was very enthusiastic about the
Irish Wolfhound, embarked in the difficult task of
recreating the breed. There were very few
specimens of the old bloodlines left and he had to
resort to crossings
with Scottish Deerhounds
(a hound that is quite similar to the Irish
Wolfhound but generally much lighter and which is
said to descend from it) and with some Borzois.
He also used males that were the result of
crossings with Great
Danes. Many
of the dogs bred by Graham were exported to the
United States. During the two World Wars it became
very difficult to continue breeding the Irish
Wolfhound and the breed ran the serious
risk of getting trapped in a genetic bottleneck,
this was because almost all of the living Irish
Wolfhounds in the British Isles descended from one
single dog, Clonboy of Ouborough. Fortunately, by
the end of WWII some of the descendants of dogs
that had been previously exported to the States
were imported back to the British Isles in order
to reintroduce fresh blood, this was the case of
Rory of Kihone and Barney O'Shea of Riverlawn.
Captain
Graham
together
with other Wolfhound enthusiasts and breeders
funded the Irish
Wolfhound Club in 1885 and
the breed was
recognized by The Kennel Club in 1925. Also
in 1902, the
Irish guard adopted
the
Irish Wolfhound as
their
regimental
mascot and
the breed has continued playing that role ever
since.
References
JUPP,
Hilary. Article published in
www.irishwolfhoundsociety.co.uk/breedhistory.htm
MC.
BRYDE, Mary. 1998. The Magnificent Irish Wolfhound.
Ringpress Books, Surrey.
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