By Frank Brophy
Wolves Would We Want Them? For almost two years now, a low-key debate has been ongoing about re-introducing wolves into Ireland. The species had been eliminated in this country around 1786 and its likely that there was a legitimate reason for doing so.
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n 2019 the leader of the Green Party suggested that wolves should be reintroduced into Ireland. Mr. Ryan stated that wolves should have a place in Ireland’s environment and would contribute positively to the country’s eco-system and national habitat. That statement left most people, including many conservationists, aghast! Just how wolves would contribute to our eco-system and national habitat has yet to be explained. In 2020 NPWS issued a statement that it had no plans to re-introduce wolves in Ireland. While we have to fully accept and respect the NPWS position, everyone knows that the stroke of a ministerial pen is all that is required to overturn any given situation. The current relevant minister is a member of the Green Party and that alone is enough to raise concerns among the farming community, country sports enthusiasts, deer management personnel and country folk generally. Such concerns are warranted as we well remember not too many years ago
when the Green Party’s price for participation in Government resulted in the closure of the Ward Union Hunt. That was unlikely to benefit the nation’s economy or reduce carbon emissions. It can only be seen as furthering Green plans to curtail country pursuits. Latin students will remember the Romulus and Remus fable - twins who founded of the city of Rome. Supposedly abandoned by their mother in surrounding hills the infants were discovered by a she-wolf who suckled them in a cave until such times as they could fend for themselves. Following many adventures the pair went on to establish a city along the river Tiber Rome. A good story but nothing more, if for no other reason than a nursing shewolf would simply have viewed a pair of abandoned infants as a free lunch. Wolves were known man-eaters several thousand years ago. Canis Lupus has been around for a long time, probably as long as humans and has gained a reputation as a man eater in Europe, also earning much antipathy for
preying on livestock to the point that many countries engaged in culling exercises.
Wolves died out in Ireland over 400 years ago They were finally eradicated in Ireland towards the end of the 1700s, the last one reportedly being killed in 1786, approximately 100 years after Britain had eliminated them. Their predations in these islands resulted in expressions such as “wolf-whistle” the “big bad wolf” and “wolfing down food” entering the English language. The Irish wolfhound is so-called from its wolf- hunting days. Remember Little Red Riding Hood - or Hitler’s Uboat Wolf packs in the Atlantic? All related to predatory behaviour. European wolves were and still are known Rabies carriers. Being social animals this disease spreads easily among packs. Woe betides the human bitten by a wolf! It was, and today in certain circumstances still is, a death sentence if a human is bitten by a
Irish Country Sports and Country Life Spring/Summer 2021
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