In 2019, Eamon Ryan TD suggested reintroducing wolves in rural areas. With wild open spaces, forests, mountains, and a plentiful supply of livestock, Mayo would seem to offer an ideal habitat.
The passage of the wolf through Ireland is reflected in early writings, placenames, legislation, and of course, mythology, folklore, and oral histories. According to the Annals of Clonmacnoise, in 688 AD, a wolf was seen and heard to speak with a human voice. In O'Flaherty's 'West or H-Iar Connaught', it is suggested this was a werewolf. If the grey wolves of Dublin Zoo could talk and were consulted on Ryan's proposal, how would they respond?
Evidence for a historic wolf population in Mayo can be found in placenames like Breaffy (Bréachmhaigh – plain of the wolves ), Breaghwyanurlaur (Bréach-Mhagh an Úrlair – wolf-field of the plain ); and Breaghwyanteean (Bréach-Mhagh an tSídheáin – Wolf-field of the fairy-hill ). Wolves feature in the Dúchas School's collection. From one essay, we learn that wolves cannot see sheep when Sheppard's Purse herb is placed around their necks.
On January 3, 1797, John Browne, 3rd Earl of Altamont, wrote to Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Vice President of the Linnean Society, to inform him that Westport man Brian Scahill had often witnessed the hunting of wolves with dogs. The practice was to gather dogs from the neighbourhood, borrow specially bred wolf-dogs from the 'principal gentlemen', and add them to the assembled pack for the hunt. Altamont assured his reader that Scahill's 'memory seemed accurate' and 'all his faculties complete'. Scahill claimed to be 119. A majestic wolf-dog owned by the Brownes was said to have been shot dead by George Robert Fitzgerald outside Westport House, to provoke Lord Altamont.
Wolves were plentiful in Mayo at least up to the late seventeenth century. Oral and recorded histories paint them as a menace, a danger to people and livestock, something to be exterminated. Hunting wolves is referenced in the eighth-century Senchas Már. Jesuit Edmund Campion noted the use of wolf-dogs to hunt wolves in 1571. When Grace O'Malley called on Elizabeth I in 1593, she was accompanied by four wolf-dogs. One might ask, who was hunting who?
Following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the government turned its attention to eradicating wolves. The planters and their livestock who replaced the slaughtered or banished population, were the new prey outside Connaught. Dispossessed Catholics who opted for Connaught over Hell fared little better. In 1653, it was recorded that lost and deserted children were 'fed upon by ravening wolves'.
The wolf problem was considered so great that wolf hunters were appointed, and bounties paid for wolves' heads. Those forced to flee Ireland in the wake of the Cromwellian onslaught took their wolf-dogs with them. Concerned for the loss of these valuable animals, a ban on transporting 'Wolfe Dogges' was introduced. In 1665, the inhabitants of Mayo were in correspondence with the Council of State on the issue of wolf-killing bounties.
Dublin Zoo notes that the last wolf sighting in Ireland was recorded in 1786. According to O'Flaherty, a wolf was killed in the mountains of Joyce-country in 1710. In one of two somewhat questionable Mayo accounts from 1745, a wolf killed a man near Cregganbaun. In the other, a wolf attracted to a fire in a bothy near Louisburgh, was killed in a tussle with a man. In 1903, explorer, Sir Henry Johnston, noted in a letter to the London Times that some domestic dogs on Achill were 'dwarf wolves in appearance'. In his book, the 'Wolves of Ireland', Kieran Hickey concludes that this Achill wolf was a Cordog, a cross between a collie and a terrier.
Hunting, farming, deforestation, and population expansion all played their part in the wolf's demise. The wolf and his nemesis, the wolf-dog, are part of our Mayo heritage. Both live on in popular culture. The wolf in the Breaffy GAA crest reflects the historical link. Belleek Castle exhibits the 'last wolf' shot in Connaught. The Wolf Dog Tavern in Killala is named after an inn on the site in 1798. Given the cruel history, the wolves of Dublin Zoo would likely decline an invitation to return to County Mayo any time soon.
