The Black Pig. Also known as 'The Dolocher'

The Black Pig. Also known as ‘The Dolocher’.


An interesting tale in connection with the Black Dog Prison in Dublin's Cornmarket was related in the Dublin Penny Journal in November 1832. The paper described how a 'creature', who appeared in the form of a black pig, had apparently engaged in a reign of terror against the women of the city at the end of the 18th Century.

The beast, known as 'The Dolocher', was commonly believed to be the spirit of a former inmate of the Black Dog named Olocher who had been sentenced to death for murder and rape. On the night before he was to be executed at Gallows Hill, Olocher cheated the hangman by committing suicide. This caused uproar in the prison with the authorities questioning the prison officials on how it happened.

Within a few days, the prison staff had another worry on their minds. One of the sentry posts, a little removed from the main prison, had a sentry on duty every night and imagine the shock when he was found lying unconscious on the ground. He had been badly mauled and when he recovered his senses he told his listeners that he had been attacked by a big black pig. At first, no one believed his story but when he was stripped in the prison hospital, his wounds were so horrible that some began to believe him. For many nights afterwards, the black pig was seen by several other sentries.

The prison was now on full alert but they had another shock coming. About a week after the happening to the first sentry, another sentry detailed for duty at the same lonely post was missing when his relief came to replace him. A search was at once organised and the man's clothes were discovered at the rear of the sentry box. His rifle was standing with the butt on the ground and his clothes, uniform, tunic, trousers and shirt were piled beside it. Locals, putting two and two together, decided that the black pig was really the ghost of the unhappy Olocher, or the Dolocher as he came to be known and that he had carried off the unfortunate sentry and murdered him.

The news of the second strange happening in the prison spread quickly and now a fear of the night spread through the Liberties and well it might for woman after woman who was foolish enough to go out on their own were attacked night after night. One woman claimed that she had been attacked by the beast in Christ Church Lane, while a pregnant woman was said to have had a miscarriage after an encounter with the beast in the same area. Due to the fear and terror engendered by the black pig, the lanes and alleyways surrounding Christ Church soon became a no-go area after dark.

The fear that haunted the Liberties soon spread to other parts of the city and it was noticed that it was always young women who were attacked. Some of the girls who were attacked told that their attacker had the face of a pig. By this time Dublin was deserted city at night time, a city that trembled with fear as the long winter nights shrouded the unlighted streets of the Liberties and other parts of Dublin. Eventually, the long nights ended and with the coming of late spring and summer, the attacks ended.

As the longs days and short nights began to end with the coming of late autumn, people hoped and prayed the evil monster that had prowled there last winter would not return. The nights of November saw their hopes dashed as on a foggy night another young woman was attacked and her cries for help were heard and the attacker fled. However, the girl's story was that her attacker was "the black pig".

Vigilante groups were formed in an effort to catch the Dolocher and, on one particular night, the patrons of a pub in Cook Street set out to kill every black pig they could find running loose on the streets of Dublin. The presence of the vigilantes seemed to force the Dolocher to lie low for a while, but he re-emerged to continue his reign of terror a year later with an attack on a woman at Fisher's Alley, beside Wood Quay. The fear that had been over the people the previous year returned and some families barred their doors at night time. A couple of weeks passed and a couple more women were attacked and then the weather took a hand.

It was a late November evening but fine, and a blacksmith from the edge of the Liberties decided to take a walk to his favourite tavern in Thomas Street for a drink and a chat with his friends. Time passed quickly and the blacksmith decided it was time to go home. When he came out of the tavern, he discovered it was raining and as he had brought no coat with him, he returned to the tavern owner for the loan of something to keep the rain off him. The tavern owner gave him a long hooded cloak belonging to his wife. The blacksmith set off to walk home through the dark streets and alleyways of the Liberties. He had just reached the end of a dark alleyway when a figure sprang at him and attempted to punch him to the ground. In a flash, he realised that his attacker was the black pig, while the black pig realised that this was no frail woman as he had thought because he was wearing a cloak. In a few minutes, the blacksmith had his attacker on the ground and then he pulled off the skin of a black pig's head the man was wearing.

By this time, three or four men had arrived on the scene and thinking that it was another attack on a woman had come as quickly as they could. They were in no way gentle with him as they dragged him to his feet and brought him to a police station. It was there the next morning that the man was identified. The Blacksmith had delivered a fatal blow to his attacker who was identified as the missing sentry, before he died he confessed to aiding Olocher in his suicide and orchestrating the slaughter of the pigs. He had spread the rumour of the black pig himself using the resulting atmosphere of fear and superstition for the sole purpose of attacking and robbing the innocent women of the Liberties. In some ways Dublin’s Jack the Ripper.

The Pig. Muc. Part Two.

The Gentleman Who Pays The Rent. Part Two.


The importance of the pig to the tenant class in rural Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was extremely important. They were fattened up using waste products and on the land and when mature they were sold on to help pay the bills. Oats were used to fatten the pig but from the eighteenth century onwards potato was used. However, during the hard times the pig had to compete with the humans for what little food was available

The landlords realising the value of the pig began to introduce improved breeds into Ireland, particularly from Britain, and this ensured that the rent was paid. Some of the more enlightened landlords gave pigs to their poorer tenants and when the pig was sold the tenant had to pay back both the price of the pig and the rent. The importance of the pig gave us the expression “on the pig’s back”, this meant that you were doing well financially.

In prehistoric times the pig that roamed the Irish forests was a descendent of the European wild pig. It was domesticated in the Neolithic period and by the Middle Ages there was very little difference between the wild and the domesticated. They both ate the same food and were lean, long headed, narrow-backed and had bristly hair and were usually dark in colour. No one knows when the wild pig began to die out in Ireland but it has been suggested that it began with the arrival of the Normans when deforestation became an ongoing process as this would contribute to a loss of their natural habitat.

The name ‘Greyhound Pig’ was said to be attributed to a travelling Englishmen, Sir Francis Heads in the 1830s. He gave the following description “As I followed them this morning, they really appeared to have no hams at all; their bodies were as flat as if they had been squeezed in a vice; and when they turned sideways their long sharp noses and tucked-up bellies gave to their profile the appearance of starved Greyhounds.’’ He was referring to a breed of German pig that he had seen. The Irish Greyhound pig was said to have the same attributes as this German pig. It was also known as the ‘Old Irish pig’, becoming known as the Irish Greyhound pig in the eighteenth century when it became a curiosity to British travellers in Ireland as the old native breeds of pig had by this time been completely eradicated in Britain.



This strange looking creature (above) is the Irish Greyhound Pig; In shape it is very different to the pig we are used to seeing today. It was common right across Ireland but by the middle of the nineteenth century agricultural statistics were reporting that the Irish Greyhound pig was almost entirely confined to County Galway. White in colour, it had floppy almond-shaped ears, long legs, a long curly tail, hedgehog-like bristles and an arched back. The Irish Greyhound pig, like all descendants of the European wild pig before the eighteenth century, was a large animal. It was this feature that was to ensure that it became an ancestor of the oldest surviving breed of domestic pig, the Tamworth (an Irish Greyhound pig was reputedly brought to England by Sir Robert Peel in 1809 and bred on his Tamworth estate),

Source: http://www.historyireland.com/


The Irish Pig

'Twas an evening in November,
As I very well remember,
I was strolling down the street in drunken pride,
But my knees were all aflutter,
So I landed in the gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.


Yes I lay there in the gutter
Thinking thoughts I could not utter,
When a colleen passing by did softly say,
"Ye can tell a man that boozes
By the company he chooses" -
At that the pig got up and walked away

Anonymous

The Pig. Muc. Part One.

The Pig. Muc.  (The Gentleman Who Pays the Rent).


The pig was always highly prized for its tasty meat and in Irish legend it was the favourite meat of the Gods and heroes at their feasts in the otherworld. It was also greatly respected for its bravery and fierce spirit when defending itself and for this reason was one of the symbols of the warrior.

In Irish Folklore the pig is seen as a lucky animal and they were also able to see the wind and forecast the weather, they were also said to have magical hearing and they could actually hear the grass growing.

Evil or threatening spirits were often said to appear in the form of a black pig and it was believed that this was the worst of all forms for fairy folk to take so people would carry a hazel stick to ward of the evil spirits. The time of year (Halloween/Samhain) when the barriers between this world and the next are weakest is a favourite time for the Black Pig to be abroad so you would be wise not to travel alone at this time.

The pig occurs in Irish folk cures. A cure for a child with mumps was to take it to a pigsty and rub it’s head on the pigs back in the hope that the illness would transfer into the pig. It was also believed that a cure for a toothache was for the sufferer to put their head to the ground where a pig had been scratching its backside while making the sign of the cross with their mouth. If you did this you would never suffer from toothache again. Another disgusting cure for jaundice involved swallowing a dozen live lice from a pig.

Superstitious sailors consider pigs to be unlucky because they have cloven hooves like the Devil and are terrified of water. Pigs would not be carried on boats. Fishermen often regarded pigs as harbingers of bad luck: a fisherman seeing a pig on his way to work would rather turn round and go home. This even extended to a prohibition of the word "pig" on board a vessel.

"Sweating like a Pig" to denote sweating profusely. This sounds illogical, as pigs have ineffective sweat glands, but the term is derived from the iron smelting process. After pouring into runners in sand, it is allowed to cool and is seen as resembling a sow and piglets - Hence "pig iron". As the pigs cool, the surrounding air reaches its dew point, and beads of moisture form on the surface of the pigs. "Sweating like a pig" indicates that the pig has cooled enough to be moved in safety.

In Irish folklore to meet a pig on the road at night is a symbol of impending doom



The Gentleman Who Pays the Rent.



This is the euphemism that was once used in Ireland to describe what was often a family's most valuable possession - the pig

Until the advent of the industrial age, most people lived a relatively agricultural life. In Ireland before the potato famine, cottagers who may not have been able to afford a riding horse or beef cattle would at the very least keep a few pigs. They were usually housed close to the main dwelling, and sometimes the pig house was attached to one end of the cottage.

You might be surprised to see this sort of housing arrangement but the pig was a very valuable part of the Irish cottage economy and pigs do best in warm, dry surroundings. So not only did this practice help keep the pigs (and often a milk cow and laying flock) warm and safe from predators, it was easier feeding kitchen scraps to the pig and collecting manure which was both valuable and very necessary for growing healthy crops. Manure was in fact so valuable you stacked it outside the front of the cottage so you could keep your eye on it.

Pigs were butchered in the autumn, around Samhain. This meant that the animals wouldn’t need scarce fodder over the winter (stocking up enough hay was tedious and land-intensive for a small-holder). It also meant that the cooler weather would slow down spoilage until the salted meat could cure. Cottagers would preserve enough ham, bacon, sausage & lard to see them through the year, and sell the rest to the butcher. However, in poorer households, people did not eat their pig. They sold it to get money to pay the rent on their land. That is why the family's pig was often called "the gentleman who pays the rent."

“The “pig in the parlour” stereotype of Ireland came from the system landlords imposed more than three centuries ago of charging people extra rent for pig houses. The poor country people found that as a pig is a clean and intelligent animal, it could share a clay cabin without soiling it if allowed to come and go. Until recent times there was a tradition in rural Ireland of keeping one pig in the yard to eat the scraps and provide an extra source of food. The practice came to be associated with poverty and died out with the coming of supermarkets.”

The Black Cat, adapted from a tale by Edgar Allan Poe.

The Black Cat.


“Although Edgar Allan Poe was not Irish I thought I’d include this as a little bit of a change to my normal posts. It’s quite gruesome but also strangely fascinating in its message.”

An interesting story from the pen of Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story using a first-person narrative. The man (the narrator) explains that he has always loved animals and that he and his wife have several pets including a large black cat called Pluto.

The cat and the man love each other and are great friends. However, this all changes as the man takes to the drink, eventually becoming an alcoholic. One night, he comes home from the pub drunk as a lord and tries to stroke the cat; the cat however avoids him like the plague and delivers a bite to his hand in its attempt to free itself. In a fit of anger he pulls a pen-knife out of his pocket, and gouges out one of the cats eyes.

Well you can imagine, from that moment onwards the cat wants nothing to do with your man and runs away in terror whenever he hears him approaching. At first, the man is extremely remorseful, regrets his cruelty and tries in vain to make it up with the cat. The cat however, refuses to have anything to do with him, is it any wonder? Over time this begins to annoy him and he begins to feel really irritated with the cat until eventually this feeling of irritation turns into hatred. One morning he grabs the cat, takes it out into the garden and hangs it from a tree and there it slowly dies.

That same night, his house mysteriously catches fire and he, his wife and their servant are forced to flee. The next day, the man returns to the ruined house and he finds imprinted on the only wall that had survived the fire, the figure of a gigantic cat, hanging by its neck from a rope.

At first, the image terrifies the man but he gradually convinces himself that someone seeing the fire had thrown the dead cat through a bedroom window in order to wake them up and in doing so saved their lives. The man begins to miss Pluto and sometime later while drinking in the pub he sees a cat that is the image of Pluto. It is the same size and colour and is even missing an eye. The only difference is a large white patch on the cat’s chest. The man decides to take the cat home with him but his feelings of friendship for the cat slowly begin to change to feelings of hatred and fear. He watches as over time the white patch of fur begins to change shape; it begins to take the shape of a gallows.

One day the man and his wife are visiting the cellar of their new home, don’t ask me why for I’ve no idea, the cat gets under the man’s feet and nearly succeeds in tripping him down the stairs. In a fit of rage, he grabs an axe that lies nearby and tries to kill the cat but is prevented from doing so by his wife. Enraged at her interference he turns on her, striking her with the axe he kills her.

He now needs to hide her body; he decides to remove some bricks from a protruding wall and place her body within the wall and repairs the hole. Eventually the wife is missed and the police arrive at the house to investigate her disappearance however they find nothing amiss and he is allowed to carry on with his life. He notices that the cat has gone missing but assumes it has just run off, well you would wouldn’t you?

The police carry on with their investigation and as there are no other leads they return to the house, the last place the wife was seen. They carry out another search but still find nothing. Before they leave they decide to have one last look in the cellar, the husband goes with them, and still they find nothing.

The husband now completely confident of his safety comments on how sturdy these old houses are and gives a rap on the wall with his walking stick, the wall behind which his wife’s body is interred. All of a sudden a wailing sound fills the room; it is the sound of a cat, coming from within the wall. The police begin to tear down the wall and discover the corpse of the missing wife, and on her head, to the absolute horror of the husband is the screeching black cat. He lets out a wail “I walled the monster up within the tomb”.

He was to receive the same treatment he meted out to Pluto. The hangman waits.

Adapted from the story of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe used this story as a poignant reminder of the dangers of alcoholism and how drinking to excess can have an adverse affect upon a person’s behaviour.

Cat.

The Cat. Cat in Irish is Cat.

A traditional Irish greeting on entering the house was “God save all here, except the cat” and this was because of its association with evil.

Strangely it was considered lucky if a stray cat was to enter the house.

A cat sat with its back to the fire is a sure sign of bad weather.

A crowing hen, a whistling girl, and a black cat are considered very unlucky. Beware of them in a house.

It was once believed that the bite of a cat was poisonous.

It's a sign of bad luck to meet a magpie, a cat, or a lame woman on a trip. If you meet a rooster at your door and it crows, your trip should be postponed.

In mythology, the cat was believed to have great influence on the weather.

Witches who rode on storms took the form of cats. The dog, an attendant of the storm king Odin, was a symbol of wind. Cats came to symbolise down-pouring rain, and dogs to symbolise strong gusts of wind. This may be where the phrase "it's raining cats and dogs".

Sailors used cats to predict the voyages they were about to embark upon.

Loudly mewing cats meant that it would be a difficult voyage. A playful cat meant that it would be a voyage with good and gusty winds.

Some people believe that cats are able to see the human aura, the energy that surrounds the human body.

It was believed that cats could see spirits or ghosts.

A black cat crossing one's path by moonlight means death in an epidemic.

Some believed that black cats carried demons.

If a funeral procession encountered a black cat, they believed another member of the family would soon die.

Druids thought black cats were human beings. These were people who had committed indiscretions in a previous life.

Some believe black cats are witches in disguise. Others believe black cats are witches familiars.

It is believed also that if a black cat is killed and a bean placed in the heart, and the animal afterwards buried, the beans that grow from that seed will confer extraordinary power; for if a man places one in his mouth, he will become invisible, and can go anywhere he likes without being seen.

The Druidical or royal cat, the chief monarch of all the cats in Ireland, was endowed with human speech and faculties, and possessed great and singular privileges. "A slender black cat, wearing a chain of silver," is how it was described.

The fear of cats, especially black cats started in Europe during the Middle Ages, especially in England. It was the cat’s independence, wilfulness, stealth and eyes that shone in the dark that seemed to put people on edge. With the explosion of rats at this time came the increase in the cat population and these cats were often fed by poor, lonely old women who were then accused of witchcraft as were the cats (witches familiars).

Some people believed that the cat had supernatural powers and if you looked into their eyes you would be hypnotised.

To kill a cat brings seventeen years of bad luck.

In England and mainland Europe there was a superstition that if a cat was built into a house wall it would protect the house from rats and evil influences. This was a practice that supposedly took place in Dublin.

An ever better protection was the body of a cat and a rat in the wall. The Natural History Museum in London has a collection of some of these unfortunate cats found in walls.

The Cat represents guardianship, detachment and sensuality. The Goddess Brigid had a cat as a companion. Because the cat was associated with the Goddess and the feminine, the cat was sometimes perceived as "unholy". The cat's ability to see and work in the spirit-world makes the cat an ideal ally for a magician. The Church's fear of such powers resulted in the torture and death of thousands of cats in Britain and France. It was in the tenth century when Pope Gregory IX announced a link between the cat and the devil and persecution of the cat became widespread. It has been suggested that this persecution actually contributed to the devastation of the Black Death (bubonic plague) in the twelfth century because of the huge increase in rats. Pope Innocent VIII in the thirteenth century ordered that every cat in Christendom be slaughtered because of their supposed supernatural powers. All because of their association with the Pagan Pantheon.

There once were two cats from Kilkenny
each thought there was one cat too many.
So they fought and they fit
and they scratched and they bit
and instead of two cats, there ain't any!

This poem is about an incident in Kilkenny that occurred in an army barracks in 1798 but there is some dispute concerning it and other stories have been suggested.

The next post will be about the black cat.

The Black Dog. Also known as Cu Sidhe or Coinn Iotair.

The Black Dog. Also known as Cu Sidhe or Coinn Iotair.

The black dog is found in folklore all over the world and is essentially a spirit that comes out at night and is often associated with evil faeries or the Christian devil. Usually it is believed to be a portent of death. Larger than an earthly dog it has large eyes that glow. Often associated with storms, ancient pathways, crossroads and places of execution such as a gallows tree.

Their origin is lost in the mist of time but throughout the folklore and mythology of Europe dogs have been associated with death and the underworld often depicted as guardians of the gates. It may also be because of the scavenging habits of dogs often seen around graveyards or after a battle searching for fresh meat. It may be this reason that the black dog evolved.

In Irish and Scottish folklore, the Cu Sith or Cu Sidhe (faerie hound), is a large and fearsome dog with supernatural powers. They are usually black but may also be green (the colour favoured by faeries) or even white with one red ear and one red eye. They are always large sometimes described as being as big as a calf or small horse.

The Cu Sidhe roam the land performing certain tasks for their faerie masters such as helping in the hunt and abducting human woman to take back to the faerie realm. It was believed that these women were used to nurse faerie babies. The Cu Sidhe are completely silent in the hunt but sometimes they would give three blood curdling howls that could be heard over a great distance. When men heard this sound they would lock up their women to prevent them from being carried off.

They are said to have the power to appear and disappear at will and in much the same way the Grim Reaper appears at death to lead the soul to the afterlife, so the Cu Sidhe takes the soul to the underworld.

The Black Dog of Bungay.

One of the most frightening incidents ever reported took place in the quiet market town of Bungay, in Suffolk, England. On the Sunday morning of the 4th of August, 1577, during the Morning Service at St. Mary’s Church a terrible and violent storm broke out. The sky darkened, thunder crashed and rain fell heavily from the skies. Lightning flashed wildly as the storm broke upon the church. Inside the congregation knelt to pray.

Suddenly to the horror of the congregation from out of a flash of lightning there appeared in the church a huge and monstrous Black Dog.
Howling wildly as the lightning flashed and thunder pealed the beast ran amok attacking the terrified parishioners and causing havoc.

Two people at their prayers were killed and a third man was badly burned from being mauled by the beast but survived the ordeal. There was great damage inflicted upon the church as the tower was struck by lightning and the clock destroyed before the Black Dog finally ran wildly from the church to the relief of the petrified congregation.

Around twelve miles away in the Holy Trinity Church at Blythburgh, at a about the same time the Black Dog, or another beast like it, appeared and also attacked the frightened congregation at prayers killing three people. There are scorched scratch marks on the church door that can still be seen to this day.

The Church or Kirk Grim.

The Vikings brought many of their customs and traditions to Ireland from Scandinavia and may well have influenced the legends of the Black Dog. The Church Grim was also known as Kirk Grim and in Finnish, ‘Kirkonväki’ and in Swedish, ‘Kyrkogrim.’Both appear in Irish and Scandinavian folklore as sentinel spirits whose task was to protect a church and its grounds. They could appear as small, dark, grotesquely formed people, or as a Black Dog.

In many parts of Europe, including Ireland, early Christians are believed to have sacrificed animals when a new church was built. A black dog would be buried alive on the north side of the land which would then become the guardian spirit keeping the church and grounds safe from the devil. It was often regarded as a herald of doom bringing death to anyone who encountered it. It was once a superstition that the first person to be buried in a churchyard would have to guard any subsequent buried souls, so it was the custom to sacrifice a dog to serve as a substitute- specifically a completely black one without a single white hair - and bury it in the foundation of the church.

Sightings and encounters with Black Dogs are still reported though they seem less horrific than those of the past and in some cases even benevolent with the beast acting as a guardian or guide ensuring travellers arrive at their destination safely.

Sometimes they have been reported by drivers who have seen them in their headlights in the road at night only to vanish when the vehicle is about to make contact.

There are also reports from many other parts of the world about similar ghostly encounters which suggest that the Black Dog is not just an Irish phenomenon.

Black dog story.

Norbury was also famous for convicting a young, recently married man from Blanchardstown, of stealing sheep, which was a crime worthy of the death sentence at that time. After he was hanged, the young man’s widow died shortly afterwards, but before passing away, cursed the judge on her deathbed. She vowed to return and haunt Norbury till the end of time, promising that she would never let him have a peaceful night’s sleep. Norsbury was said to have suffered from chronic insomnia after that, a deserving end to a brutal fiend.
Lord Norbury - the "Hanging Judge"

John Toler was born in Co. Tipperary in 1745. He was admitted to the bar in 1770, and as a strong supporter of the Government, he attained many offices, including that of Lord Chief Justice, and was eventually ennobled as the Earl of Norbury. He was also the Solicitor General and a member of Grattan's Parliament. Later by bribery and deception he reached the Bench to become a corrupt and fearsome judge. He had poor legal skills and used his power to intimidate lawyers and defendants with his sarcastic wit and twisted sense of humour. His courts were like a wild theatre. His most famous trial was that of Robert Emmet (1803), in which Norbury continually interrupted and abused Emmet when he was making his speech from the dock, before sentencing him to death.

Norbury wrongfully convicted an innocent young man from Blanchardstown of the capital crime of sheep-stealing. The man was hanged and his distraught widow survived him by just a few months. On her deathbed she cursed Norbury, vowing to haunt him from beyond the grave until the end of time, promising that she would never let him have another night’s sleep. Norbury was said to have suffered from chronic insomnia after that, a deserving end to a brutal man. On his own death, aged 85, Norbury was reportedly changed into a phantom black hound condemned to forever roam the streets of Cabra, dragging a hefty chain in his wake.

Daniel O'Connell despised him and initiated the investigation of his conduct during a trial in wich he fell asleep. He was eventually removed from the bench in 1827 due to his absent-mindedness and his inclination to fall asleep during important trials. He died in his home, number 3 Great Denmark Street, Dublin, on July 27th 1831 at the age of 85 years and was buried at St. Mary's Church, Mary Street, Dublin.

Even our literature giant James Joyce recalls the black dog, “with eyes like carriage lamps”, that patrolled the stairs of the Jesuit College in Kildare which Joyce attended.

Also known as the Coinn Iotair, Hounds of Rage, these were the legendary hunting dogs of Crom Dubh the ’Black Crooked One’.

The inspiration for the death-hound of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles was the tale of a Dartmoor black dog.

MODDEY DHOO (Black Dog) was an Isle of Man black dog that roamed Peel Castle. Every night it warmed itself before the guard room fire, and at first the soldiers were afraid, but eventually they got used to it. Then one night, during the reign of Charles II, a drunken soldier boasted that he would patrol the castle alone, and dared the dog to accompany him on his rounds- he would find out whether it was a real animal or a demon. The ghastly dog arose from his place by the fire and followed the man. Fearful cries and screams issued from the corridor, but not a man dared venture from the room. The foolish soldier returned white and gibbering. He died three days later, never speaking of what he had seen. The black dog has not been seen since, but some say it still haunts the castle, unseen.

For he was speechless, ghastly, wan,
Like him of whom the story ran,
Who spoke the spectre hound in man.
Sir Walter Scott, The lay of the last minstrel, Canto VI, v.26.

The Dog. Abach, Madadh, Madra or Hound .Cù

The Dog has not only been man’s closest companion for thousands of years but they have also provided him with many other things. It is probably our oldest domesticated animal and has shared our fires, guarded our homes and worked alongside us both to control livestock and assist in hunting. It has acted as an early alarm system, a reliable food source and even pulled carts. DNA evidence suggests wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago; but whether humans had anything to do with that, no one really knows.

The guardianship aspect of dogs in Celtic life is amply illustrated by one of the stories of the early life of Cú Chulainn. In early Ireland the prefix 'Cú' (Hound of) was frequently used in Celtic names of heroes, to denote warrior status. The most famous, Cú Chulainn, which means the Hound of Culann, had a very special and close relationship with dogs. As a young boy, he is called Setanta, but he kills the huge guard dog of Culann the smith and, as a penance, he takes the dog's place and also his name.

This affinity with dogs recurs in the adult life of Cú Chulainn: he has a geis (a bond or taboo) on him that he must never eat hound-flesh. However, he is offered dog meat at a feast, and there is another geis on him never to refuse hospitality. He breaks the first rule and eats the meat; this act weakens the hero's supernatural strength and leads ultimately to his death.

The story is interesting, since it implies that dog meat was a traditional food for the early Celts; this is borne out by the archaeology of Iron Age Europe, where dog remains are part of food refuse on settlement sites. Yet at the same time, dog ritual was very prominent in Britain and Gaul, and there is evidence that dogs fulfilled a special role in Celtic religion.

Dogs were a necessity of life and were highly regarded, the symbol of the dog is commonly found in Celtic art, metalwork and decoration. In Celtic symbolism, dogs are a representation of heroism. They embody heart-pounding attributes such as: Courage, Persistence, and Virility. Dogs were even trained by the ancient Celts to assist in battle. Celtic dogs are also symbolic of healing. They are often associated with Noden, a Celtic god of nutritive waters, hunting and healing (water is often synonymous with healing in Celtic wisdom). Dogs have also been portrayed with Sucellus, the Celtic god of protection and provision (from an agricultural view).

Devoted hounds are often mentioned in Celtic myths, such as Bran and Sceolan which belonged to Finn mac Cumhail. Underworld hounds, such as the Welsh Cwn Annwn belonging to Arawn, are always white with red ears. The Underworld Hounds run down and punish the guilty. Dogs represent tracking skills, the ability to scent a trail, and companionship.

Some superstitions associated with dogs:

The dog was considered good luck by the village. Its companionship drove away loneliness and the signs of illness and rejection that loneliness brings.

The howling of the dog was considered as the first note of the funeral dirge and the signal that the coming of death was near.

A dog howling at night when someone in the house is sick is a bad omen.

It is remarkable that when dogs see spirits (and they are keenly sensitive to spirit influence) they never bark, but only growl.

Howling dogs mean the wind god has summoned death, and the spirits of the dead will be taken.

It was believed that dogs were capable of becoming ghosts after death.

In County Cork it was believed that some food should be thrown out of the room of the dying in order that the death hounds would be drawn away and not take the soul of the dead.

It was believed that dogs could foresee evil.

If you have your new-born baby licked by a dog, your baby will be a quick healer.

Dogs have always been credited with the power of sensing supernatural influences, and seeing ghosts, spirits, faeries or deities which are invisible to human eyes.

Fishermen traditionally regard dogs as unlucky and will not take one out in a boat, or mention the word 'dog' whilst at sea.

The sight of a dog eating grass, rolling on the floor or scratching itself excessively are all said to be omens that rain is imminent.

If several deaths occur in the same family, tie a black ribbon to everything left alive that enters the house, even dogs and chickens. This will protect against deaths spreading further.

A black dog was said to be a hag’s (witch’s) father.

Never ask a dog a question for if it answers you will die in the near future.

Dogs were feared as possible carriers of rabies; sometimes even a healthy dog was killed if it had bitten someone, because of the belief that if the dog later developed rabies, even many years afterwards, the bitten person would also be afflicted. Remedies for the bite of a mad dog often included the patient being forced to eat a part of the dog in question, such as its hairs or a piece of its cooked liver.

Dogs were also used to cure other illnesses; one old charm which was often used for healing sick children was to take some of the patient's hairs and feed them to a dog in between slices of bread and butter; the ailment was believed to transfer to the animal, healing the patient.

It is strange that although the dog is so faithful to man, it is never mentioned in the Bible without an expression of contempt; and Moses in his code of laws makes the dog an unclean animal, probably to deter the Israelites from the Egyptian worship of this animal. It was the lowest term of offence--" Is thy servant a dog?" False teachers, persecutors, Gentiles, unholy men, and others sunk in sin and vileness were called dogs; while at the same the strange prophetic power of these animals was universally acknowledged and recognized.

An old Irish folktale about the dog.

Once upon a time the cat and the dog had an argument about who should live inside the house with the humans. After many arguments in which they both put forward their various attributes they still could not decide so they agreed to a race. Whichever one reached the house first would be the winner. The dog was winning the race but stopped when he saw an old beggar he did not recognise and the dogs natural instinct was to attack anyone he did not know. The cat did not stop as we all know cats are only interested in their own comforts and don’t really bother with strangers. The cat reached the house first and the rest is history.

As with a lot of Irish animal superstitions there is mention of a black....
In this case the Black Dog. I will follow this post with one on the Black Dog.

Upper Image: Irish Red Setter.
Lower Image: Irish Wolfhound.