a st. patrick's day post: the mighty irish wolfhound

(PD) loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g10979/

Isn't everyone part Irish today?  Let's not forget the Irish reputation for stout-hearted bravery, seen not least in the wolfhound. This snippet from a 1908 novel about one of the breed says it:

In the first century of our era, Mesroida, the King of the Leinstermen, had an Irish Wolfhound which was so mighty in battle that it was said to defend the whole province, and to fill all Ireland with its fame. For this hound, six thousand cows, besides other property, were offered by the King of Connaught, and about the same price was offered by the King of Ulster. Irish Wolfhounds fought regularly in battle, through the early centuries of our era; and fearsome warriors they were. Right down to the period of a couple of centuries ago, a leash of Irish Wolfhounds was considered a fitting and acceptable present for one monarch, or lord, to offer to another king or great noble; while from the earliest times, down to the day of Buffon, and, in our own time, "Stonehenge," the naturalists have written of the Irish Wolfhound as the greatest, that is finest, and "tallest of all dogs."

Alec John Dawson, Finn the Wolfhound (London:  Grant Richards, 1908), p. 26