The Old Irish Goat Rediscovered

Tamsin Cooper learns how a native breed is restoring Ireland's heathlands

- Tamsin Cooper

Ignored or hunted for many years, the Old Irish goat is being rescued and returned to domestication thanks to its unique skills, honed by and for the Irish terrain and climate.

The Old Irish Goat Society (OIGS) has worked hard for years to establish the breed's historic links and unique genome. In 2022, the Old Irish goat gained official recognition as an indigenous rare breed. Now these goats have a useful job, maintaining firebreaks to prevent heathland fires spreading to village homes. But there are still fewer than 100 registered, and those that remain in the wild have no legal protection from trophy hunting.

A LONG HISTORY IN IRELAND

Goats reached Ireland around 5000 years ago, brought by Neolithic settlers. They slowly adapted to the damp, windy climate, while learning to make the most of native vegetation. At the same time, they provided for human families, while raising their own kids. These traits made them ideal for remote rural families with little income. They provided milk, meat, hair and skins, depending only on food that they foraged themselves and needing very little human intervention. Native goats helped rural families survive through the Great Famine of 1845-1852.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, The British Goat Society (BGS) urged Irish villagers to upgrade their milkers by breeding them with bucks of the foreign and improved breeds that were popular in Britain. English breeders found that goats brought back from the Mediterranean had higher yields of milk. They hoped that cross-breeding would help poor families improve their food sources. What they did not realise was the long term effect it would have on the hardiness of Irish herds and their suitability to Ireland's environment. In both Britain and Ireland, the indigenous breed was pushed aside in preference for improved versions and anglicised foreign breeds, such as those we know well today.