Two thousand years in the making
Long before it was known as the Irish Wolfhound, our breed was called cú faoil in its native Irish. It served historically as a dog of war, and for herding, guarding and hunting, and the Irish placed great value on these hounds – a person's status once dictated how many he was permitted to keep. The legendary hero Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) was said to keep hundreds of Wolfhounds as dogs of war, and the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn is deeply associated with the hound in Irish legend.
Rome, wolves and a name earned in the hunt
Roman accounts describe encounters with the great Irish hounds, and of the Irish taking them back to Rome – though Rome itself never conquered Ireland. The breed's name comes not from its great size but from its purpose: to hunt wolves. The wolf, and the boar it once hunted alongside, no longer exist in Ireland – in part because of these hounds.
Outlawed by England, woven into Ireland
In the long conflicts between Ireland and England, Irish infantry turned to the Wolfhound – a dog large and trainable enough to unhorse and kill an armoured knight. It was for this reason that English rule later banned ownership of the breed among Irish commoners, a prohibition dating from the Statutes of Kilkenny in the fourteenth century onward.
That history left its mark. Some later Irish nationalists were uneasy using a hound once turned against their own people as a symbol of Ireland. Yet the breed remains woven into Irish culture and identity, and to this day many people of Irish descent choose an Irish Wolfhound for exactly that heritage – as, in our own way, do we.