Episode 2 Wolfland

After the battles that took place in Ireland in this time period,

many of the Irish and the wolves retreated into the forest

as a way of escaping from the conflict and also

as a way of regrouping and making occasional forays back out

and targeting the new settlers.

So you have this conflagration together of wolves and rebels,

and so on, that were being put together

as being something that needed to be eliminated or reduced

to such an extent that it wouldn't threaten the settlers

and their creation of new-style plantations and estates in Ireland.

SHOUTING SWORDS CLASH

We have stories and records of wolves coming down after the battles,

taking and eating the bodies of the slain

and probably even targeting the injured.

One example comes from 1573 after the battle of Bel-an-Chip

and this says, "Clamorous were the ravens and carrion crows

"and other ravenous birds of the air and the wolves of the forest

"over the bodies of the nobles slain in the battle on that day."

-GUNSHOT

-Aargh!

Aargh!

Aargh!

Pray you, no more of this.

And now for our Irish wars.

HOWLING

'The King being given to understand the great loss and hindrance

'which arose in Ireland by the multitude of wolves

'in all parts of the kingdom did by letters from Newmarket,

'26th November, 1614,

'direct a grant to be made by patent to Henric Tuttesham,

'who by petition had made offer to repair to Ireland,

'and there use his best skill and endeavour

'to destroy the said wolves.'

BARKING

GUNSHOT

WHIMPERING

WHIMPERING

There was a wide variety of methods in Ireland used to hunt wolves

and these included things like traps and pitfalls.

The animal would fall into pits, which would contain spikes,

which would obviously impale the animal and kill the animal as well.

Clearly in the Irish contexts, as well,

we've got the famous Irish wolfhound

and this dog would have been bred particularly to fight

and to target and to hunt wolves.

So the dog would have been as big as the wolf

and also would have similar abilities in terms of stamina and ferocity.

DOGS BARK

Basically these dogs were hunting by sight

and they were involved in actually trying to catch and kill the wolves.

We have large dogs from early archaeological sites,

so we know large dogs were available to breed up into these breeds.

So there are animals like these,

these dog skulls here are from archaeological sites

that are at least 1,000 years old

and they would have been hunting dogs of their time.

BARKING

WHIMPERING

'The subtle wolf, finding himself to be overmatched,

'ran straight-aways to a steep hill,

'and there with all made such a howling noise

'that he called such a number of wolves together

'that all the power they had was not able to resist them.'

HOWLING

WHISPERING

GROWLING

WOMAN SCREAMS

The Commonwealth, which had been targeting Irish priests

and Irish soldiers now started also to target Irish wolves,

and these were all seen in the same way,

as something that was undesirable, that they didn't want

and wanted removed as quickly as possible.

HAMMER THUDS

Such was the concern about the increasing

wolf populations in Ireland in the 1650s that there was

a Declaration Touching Wolves, which was issued on the 29th June 1653.

"A Declaration for the Destroying of Wolves -

"For the better destroying of wolves, which of late years have

"much increased in most parts of this Nation."

"We have three beasts to destroy that lay burdens upon us.

"The first is the wolf, on whom we lay £5 a head if a dog,

"and £10 if a bitch.

"The second beast is a priest, on whose head we lay £10.

"The third beast is a Tory, on whose head, if he be a public Tory,

"we lay £20."

The native Irish were actually demonised

by political satirists in the Commonwealth as well,

and one of the ways they did this was relating the Irish as if

they were actually wolf or wolf-like in appearance

and in the way they behaved.

An example is a report after a battle in Cashel, County Tipperary

in 1647, when one of the reports said some of the Irish

who were slaughtered actually had wolf tails,

which obviously is completely

and utterly ridiculous in a modern context, but it shows the way

the Commonwealth were trying to demonise the Irish

and portray them in a way that was sub-human

and therefore you could justify their maltreatment in a much easier manner.

WOLF HOWLS

One of the latest examples of the last wolf in Ireland -

obviously these records go into the 1700s -

is from 1786 and it's the estate of Ballydarton House

and the owner at the time was John Watson

and he claims to have killed the last wolf in Ireland on Mount Leinster,

which is on the County Carlow/Wexford border,

as a result of this wolf killing sheep, and this is probably,

realistically, the last wolf in Ireland.

WOLF SNARLS

GUNSHOT

WOLF WHIMPERS

It is just barely possible indeed that an isolated specimen or two

of the breed may yet exist among the pathless wilds of Connemara.

My strong feeling would be that the wolf is a non-starter.

With many of these large carnivores, they need an enormous amounts

of free space, without competition from people.

They need to have a breeding population,

they need very large areas that are dedicated just for wildlife

and Ireland simply isn't giving up that kind of space.

If we wanted to do something like reintroduce wolves,

we would probably have to get used to the idea that

very large areas would have to be given up in terms of agriculture.

I don't see that happening.

WOLF HOWLS

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd