Why Save the Old Irish Goat?

Why Save the Old Irish Goat? Raymond Werner, July 2012 A survey that was undertaken in 1974 found that of the 112 native breeds of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses to be found in the British Isles, nearly half (54) needed help to ensure that they did not become extinct. Overall, 22 breeds did die-out in the last century, amounting to an irreplaceable loss of genetic material, and thus potential for the future. By the time that this survey had been undertaken, Ireland had already lost the Cushendale and Goonhilly ponies, Roscommon sheep and the Ulster White pig; the Irish Dun cow, a valuable breed that might have developed into Ireland’s peculiar native dairy breed, being added to the list of losses in the very year that the survey was undertaken. Even before this, Ireland had lost a long and course-haired native cattle breed that may have resembled the modern-day West Highland cow; a spectaclular breed of catle that was white with black or red points; the native Greyhound pig, and native Irish sheep that greatly resembled the primitive Manx Loughton breed of the Isle of Mann: 1 1974 was also the year that Dexter, Irish Moyled and Kerry (right) cattle were recognized as being endangered. But built into this awareness of the loss of so many of Ireland’s native livestock breeds, and the need to save what was left, the Old Irish goat was never mentioned. By then, the Old Iirish goat was becoming rare in domestication and increasingly mongrelized in the feral state, and it wasn’t hard to recognize that its days were numbered. But nothing was done, even so. Why was this? The most likely explanation is two-fold. Firstly, as goat breeds of improved type became increasingly popular in Ireland, this being a process that went on for nearly a century, the little Old Irish goat was either abandoned or graded-up into the dairy type. It was thus quietly and uncomplainingly absorbed into the generality of Irelands improved goat population. Secondly, as farming practices changed, and goats were no longer herded on common pasturages as a collective, herds were either sold off or allowed to run feral. Thus it was that the demise of the Old Irish goat was hardly noticed in domestication, and its increasing rarity as a feral animal due to mongelization was masked by the fact that the ‘Irish feral goat’ was alive and well, albeit of an increasingly different type to Ireland’s native breed, the two types becoming increasingly confused. Does this mean, then, that nature should be allowed to take its course, and the Old Irish goat join the list of Ireland’s extinct landrace livestock breeds? The answer is a resounding no, and for the following reasons: • Megalithic dolmens are a part of Ireland’s heritage and so protected by public opinion that there would be a public outcry if one of them was bulldozed to make hardcore for a road developent. Why, then, should not the Old Irish goat, the very animal that helped to sustain the builders of the dolmens, be recognized as eqully valuable as heritage and history. We therefore beg the question, would the continued survival of the country’s landrace goat breed be any the less important than the remains of an equally ancient cultural structure? • Tradition, history and heritage aside, the breed needs to be cherished as a landrace or native breed. As both an unimproved and feral animal, it has not suffered from standardization by way of artificial selection, and thus retains many of the qualities and unique genes that characterize an unimproved breed and a wild species. It is hardy, fully adapted to harsh conditions, and an invaluable gene repository that one day might be ideal for meeting the needs of an ever-changing pattern of livestock production. Added to this, the Old Irish goat is in many ways symbolic of Ireland and its history. For as long as there has been an Irishman, there has been an Irish goat. Call it what you will - sentiment, necessity, survival, aesthetic pleasure, tradition or simply the next meal or staving off starvation- the breed is inextricably intertwined into all that was, and is, Ireland. You may be able to take, through its extinction, the Old Irish goat out of Ireland, but you can’t take the Old Irish goat out of the collective memory of the Irish. 2.

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