THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MULRANNY FERAL GOAT, COUNTY MAYO, TO THE PRESERVATION AND PROMO-TION OF THE OLD IRISH GOAT

Raymond Werner, September, 2010

ABSTRACT

Both the present day population of Ireland and the Old Irish goat have something in common, this being that they are genetic time capsules relating to the latter stages of the Ice Age.

The Old Irish goat is a Cold Weather type belonging to the Northern Breed Group. All breeds in this group are primitive (unimproved) landrace types found only around the Atlantic periphery of North-West Europe. Its origin cannot be ex-plained by standard goat breed origins and historical distribution, or by the ‘In-vasion theory’ relating to patterns of human migration and movements historic-ally. Rather, we need to look to a time in European history when a period of idyllic pastoralist-herding nomadism gave way to a phase of intense cold and harsh conditions. This cannot be identified with the agricultural neolithisation of the British Isles, nor with any climatic upheavals during the Holocene. Rather, the evidence points to the latter stages of the Ice Age (temperate Great Steppe) and deglaciation (The Big Chill).

Until the end of the Nineteenth Century, the Old Irish goat was Ireland’s original and only landrace goat breed, following which the impact of importing goat stock of improved dairy type from England led to a steady decline of the old breed. This decline moved relentlessly but slowly from east to west during the Twentieth Century, reaching the far west of Ireland in any significant numbers less than forty years ago. The overall result was the demise of the Old Irish goat in domestication, the breed now being found, albeit increasingly rarely, in feral herds.

As the breed is now seriously endangered, qualifying as a rare breed in its own right, it is no exaggeration to say that without a concerted effort to protect, pre-serve and promote it, the Old Irish goat will soon disappear altogether. Gone means gone forever, with no hope of its resuscitation.

A lesson can be learnt from the history of the demise of the Old English goat in domestication. As with the Old Irish, it was England’s original and only landrace type as late as the Nineteenth Century. Following on from the importation of for-eign goat stock of improved type, however, and the founding of the British Goat Society in 1879, the breed went into a rapid decline. An enthusiastic attempt was made to preserve and promote it in 1920, but by 1924 only 159 goats had been registered, the overall goat population of England at that time being 54,000, nearly all being of foreign-based improved type. There were only 300 goats left of the old type in 1935, with the last remnant of half a dozen or so dying out in the early 1950’s. Today, as with the Old Irish breed, the Old English goat is to be

found only as a feral animal, there being four herds of the old type located along the Border Hills of England.

Preserving the breed in Ireland will centre upon identifying the last few of the Old Irish goat in feral herds. Hopefully this will involve the protection and preserva-tion of herds that are uniformly of the right phenotype, although it may prove ne-cessary to remove individual goats from mongrelized herds to operate a captive breeding programme with the aim of re-domestication.

Of all the herds seen to date, only the Mulranny herd has an overall unity of type that approaches that of the original breed. This means that this particular herd may well become a vital component of any attempt to save the breed in the feral state.

More work needs to be done:

· A field study of the phenotypic type (the herd has only been analysed by means of photographic evidence to date)

· An historical assessment based upon any documentation and local know-ledge that may be available

· A wider study to gauge whether or not wandering or peregrinating males are having any impact on the genetic base of the herd by way of operating an open system

If the foregoing looks promising in outcomes, then a DNA study could be under-taken. To date, we have no DNA profile of what the genotype of the Old Irish goat is in relation to the various Modern-based (improved) breeds. Nor do we fully understand its genotypic parameters as a variable, unimproved type. With only descriptive and illustrative material to hand, it may well be that the breed is a little more variable than has been assumed. This is certainly the case with the Icelandic goat, and in which there are several identifiably sub-types.

If the Mulranny goats are assessed as belonging to the Old Irish breed, it may be-come an important part of the key to understanding what an Old Irish goat is, as well as being a vital component in its future preservation.

THE ORIGIN OF THE IRISH: A GENETIC TIME CAPSULE

It used to be generally assumed that the people of Ireland could boast a rich her-itage of bloodlines, the legacy of co-mingling the various peoples who have ar-rived on its shores since the Ice Age. Thus it was that a small population of Pa-laeolithic hunters, who became the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic, were joined by various Neolithic immigrants who brought with them settled agriculture (farming and husbandry) or, in the case of the builders of the Megalithic tombs, a missionary zeal. Then came the workers of bronze, followed by the Celts who, it is said, imposed themselves on the established population as a super state, their influence in many ways defining Ireland and corresponding with the flowering of the Iron Age. Lastly, Norwegian Vikings settled along the East coast, followed by more Vikings who had become Normans, and the English.

More recently, however, this ‘Invasion theory’ has been replaced by a new, and more genteel one: ‘The culture and elite warrior group theory’. Murder, mayhem and massacres, as a consequence of wholesale invasions, have been replaced by the twin theories that the cultures that have previously been linked to particular tribal groups have been diffused around Europe independently of people migra-tions and, secondly, that most if not all immigrant groups post the Mesolithic came in small numbers but imposed themselves on the existing population as a warrior class.

These latter theories have the support of recent DNA studies, which have shown that Ireland’s present-day population turns out to be a genetic time capsule of Europe during the latter stages of the Ice Age, with 88% being derived from pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers. One such genetic marker is haplogroup 1 on the Y chromosome. This ancient genetic marker was originally to be found in most Pa-laeolithic people throughout Europe at the close of the Ice Age, but due to move-ment and mixing over time has been thoroughly diluted. Now it is to be found in relatively few Europeans, although in Ireland 78% of the men have it. Even more telling, it has its highest concentration in the west of Ireland, with Connaught, for example, having a male population in which virtually all (98.3%) of the males have this marker. Thus, there has been little genetic influence from outside Ire-land since the original Palaeolithic population settled here.

RELEVANCE TO THE OLD IRISH GOAT

But what, it may be wondered, has all this to do with the Old Irish goat? In a nut-shell, everything. The Old Irish goat is, like the people of Ireland themselves, a genetic time capsule that pre-dates the Neolithicisation of the country.

When the ‘Invasion theory’ reigned supreme, it was assumed that each warlike and invading people brought with them their own breeds of livestock, including goats, so that over time the goats of the British Isles merged into a patchwork quilt of types, a kind of pot-pouri of all the breeds that had been introduced in the past and then settled haphazardly in different regions. Thus, there was a Welsh goat, a Scotch goat, an English goat and an Irish goat, all an amalgam of the stock introduced by the Neoliths, the workers of bronze, the Celts and so on. Of course, within this theory, the Anglo-Saxons practiced a kind of ethnic cleans-ing that drove the existing Celtic population, with its goat stock, into the nether regions of Wales and Cornwall, the consequence of this being that the English goat would have been markedly different to the breeds of the ‘Celtic fringe’. Then along came the Vikings, of course, to muddle up the situation even more.

So much for history as was. Recent research, carried out by the present writer for the British Feral Goat Research Group, has established a very different story.

WHAT IS AN OLD IRISH GOAT?

The characteristics of the Old British goat: a Cold Weather type

The so-called breeds of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England are in fact a uni-form type that conforms to a standard that may be summarized as a Cold Weather goat. They are universally small and robust, being short-legged and cobby in conformation. The ears are small and pricked; facial outline is dished, and the coat is thick and wiry with an abundance of under wool or cashmere.

Collectively they were known as the Old British goat, an unimproved landrace type that has recently been renamed the British Primitive goat by the British Feral Goat Research Group.

Links with the Northern Breed Group

What is of particular interest is that goats of identical Cold Weather type are to be found elsewhere in Europe, but only around its Atlantic periphery. Moving from east to west, we have the Nordic breeds (Finnish landrace; Swedish landrace; Norwegian landrace); the Old Dutch or Dutch Landrace goat of the Netherlands; the British Primitive goat (Old English; Old Welsh; Old Scotch; Old Irish), and the Icelandic goat (introduced from Norway in the Ninth Century). All these breeds have now been identified as a single and most singular breed group: the Northern Breed Group.

Elsewhere in Europe the goat breeds and types are very different, there being three other breed groups in all. Throughout Europe’s central belt we have the Central European Breed Group, comprising goats of Standard type as exempli-fied by the Modern Swiss breeds. Then there is the Mediterranean Breed Group, originally of Standard type as well, but now thoroughly mixed in with goats of Scrubland type from the Middle East, a process that began in the Bronze Age and gained additional momentum during the Islamic expansion into Europe. Lastly, there is the Balkans Breed Group, also a Cold Weather type in origin, but origin-ating in Asia and reaching the South-East of Europe via the Middle East.

Origin and present-day distribution of the Northern Breed Group

Identifying the Northern Breed Group as distinct from the other breed groups of Europe is one thing, but trying to explain its origin and present day distribution is another.

The first Neoliths who arrived with what is termed the Neolithic package, mean-ing a mixed economy of crop production and animal husbandry, originated in the Middle East and brought with them into Europe goats of the Standard type (hence their distribution throughout central and southern Europe). We now know that they came in relatively small numbers, comprising no more than 20% of the population once they had settled into the full-blown Neolithic. The Beaker People and the Celts were also small warrior elites who imposed themselves on the indigenous population, and coming from Iberia and Central Europe respect-ively, would also have brought with them goats of the Standard type, if goats they brought at all.

This leaves us with a conundrum: if the Northern Breed Group comprises a dis-tinctly Cold Weather type of goat that is firmly established around the northern fringe of western Europe, and historical people movements originating in the Middle East from the Neolithic onwards brought with them only goats of a Stand-ard type that was manifestly different from the Northern Breed Group, from whence and when did the latter originate?

What we are looking for is a period of intense cold and harsh conditions that would have resulted in the sudden and dramatic development of a goat of Stand-ard type into a cold weather animal. There was most certainly a period of cold during the Bronze Age in Europe, but in affecting France, Switzerland and else-where as well as the British Isles and Scandinavia, it did nothing to alter the Central European Standard goat.

Evidence of a pre-agricultural Neolithic pastoral-herding system in Europe

Where the evidence is pointing us to is an extended period of pastoralist-herding nomadism in Europe from the Mesolithic and even earlier, that pre-dates the in-troduction of settled agriculture during the Neolithic proper. It has long been ar-gued, in trying to explain the distribution of primitive, short-tailed moufflonoid sheep around Europe’s Atlantic periphery, that this is the case; supported by os-teological finds of sheep/goat in Mesolithic encampments in western Europe. More recently, as a part of a study of the origins of the Indo-Europeans and their language base, it has been shown that livestock domestication and herding north of the Black Sea (Pontic Steppe zone) emerged independently of the develop-ment of settled agriculture in the Middle East. In this respect dating is of the ut-most importance. New finds put the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution back to the late Pleistocene in Europe, and some two and a half millennia before the close of the Ice Age here.

The Great Steppe and the Big Chill:

the key to an understanding of the origin of the Northern Breed Group

During the latter stages of the Ice Age, and contrary to popular thought, Eurasia was one huge Great Steppe, similar in climate and topography to the Serengeti plains of today. The climate was temperate (mild and relatively warm), with cool summers and mild winters. Precipitation was high and food sources abundant. The Great Steppe, a never ending vista of rolling grasslands, supported huge herds of mega-fauna, with attendant predators, and we can imagine how pastor-alist-herders, moving up through Anatolia and on over a Black Sea that did not then exist, encountered the ideal conditions to become hunter-herders. Their goats would have been of the Standard type, but soon became larger and be-decked with more impressive horns as befitted the prevailing conditions.

It would have been an ideal time for pastoralists, but it wasn’t to last. As the Ice Age drew to a close, deglaciation ushered in the Big Chill. With rapidly melting ice sheets the climate became cold and dry, particularly the winters, and flood-ing occurred, along with constant dust storms. It would have been a period of sudden change that left man, his stock and his prey severely stressed due to harsh conditions and an increasing scarcity of food resources. The result was a massive extinction of mega fauna, and a decimating of livestock as they suffoc-ated (nasal passages becoming blocked with ice) and then froze. We can envis-age how nomadic communities became trapped in an alien world, and one in which they had to adapt or die. And adapt they did, along with their livestock. The summation of how this happened is seen today in the characteristics of the Exmoor pony, and the British Primitive goat has rightly been called the ‘Exmoor pony of the goat world’.

In Europe the pastoralist-herders stayed and eventually flourished rather than migrate south, moving steadily north and westwards as the ice retreated and a sub-boreal climate encouraged the spread of scrub that blossomed into forests, replacing their traditional grassland home. Further east on the Great Steppe, a similar story was unfolding with the goat stock of the pastoralist-herders of Cent-ral Asia developing into the Central Asian Cashmere Breed Group.

Inevitably, Neolithic farming communities moved steadily into Europe at the rate of one kilometre a year, but their goat stock was of a kind that by then was thor-oughly adapted to the kind of husbandry we associate with crop-growing and a mixed economy. Used initially as scrub clearers to make way for fields, it soon settled into the role of a farm goat, never gaining any kind of a foothold around the periphery of Europe. This remained the stronghold of the All Weather goat as a multi-purpose herding and subsistence animal until The Swiss began goat im-provement in the 1840’s and exported their success a few decades later.

The beginning of the end of the Old Irish goat

What all this means is that the Old Irish goat has a continuous history in Europe from the end of the Ice Age to the present day. Originally herded by the very pre-Neolithic people whose descendants make up the bulk of the present-day Irish

population, it, too is a genetic time capsule but one that is fast disappearing due to dramatic changes that have occurred within the last century or so.

In 1881, the goat population of Ireland is recorded as being 266,553, all of which would have been representative of the Old Irish breed. Forty-five years later, in 1926, the number had dropped by 25,126 to 241,427, which should be balanced by the fact that the goat population of England at that time was 187,427 less, whilst Wales had a population of a little under 6000. The goat was evidently still valued in Ireland, a comment of the time stating that it was ‘highly prized for the virtues of its milk’, large numbers being bred annually. Further, although it led a rough life, it was said to ‘contribute materially both by their milk and flesh to the welfare of the Irish peasant.’

Be this as it may, the Irish goat population of 1926 was somewhat different to that of 1881. In England a goat movement of the 1860’s led to a full-blown goat revival in the 1870’s. Goat shows were held annually from 1875, and the revival resulted in the founding of the British Goat Society in 1879.

From the start, goat improvement by-passed the Old English goat completely, fo-cussing on foreign goat stock. Casual ship borne imports of scrubland type from the East, then called ‘Oriental lop-eared’, were instrumental in the creation of the Anglo-Nubian breed; whilst the introduction of Swiss breeds from 1883 on-wards resulted in the establishing of the Toggenburg and Saanen, with their off-shoot Anglo-Swiss breeds the British Toggenburg, British Saanen and British Alpine.

In the midst of this mania for all things Swiss or exotic, and the establishing of large, polled, smooth haired and pedigreed dairy types over forty years or so, the little horned and hairy Old English goat went into a steady and decisive decline. There was an enthusiastic attempt to save, preserve and revive a remnant of the breed in 1920, but by the early 1950’s the breed had become extinct in domest-ication, being now found in only four feral herds along the Border Hills of North-ern England.

What can we say? In Ireland at the present time history is re-peating itself with regard to the Old Irish Goat. By the end of the Nineteenth Century improved breeds from England were being introduced into Ireland, goat shows were being held and, wherever the imports became established, the Old Irish goat was eclipsed. The process, however, was ponderous, goat breeders in England well remembering imports of goats of the Old Irish type until the period of the Second World War.

The loss of goats of the Old Irish type to stock of Modern (Stand-ard and Scrubland) type moved relentlessly from east to west, and as late as the 1980’s, for instance, the goats of the Burren, County Clare, were largely of the old type. But today, it is to be doubted that any of the old breed remains in do-mestication, its remnant, as with the Old English goat, being found only in feral herds.

Considering its past history as Ireland’s only and original landrace breed, the Old Irish goat is as important to the country’s heritage as the Megalithic tombs, being a living symbol of Ireland’s fascinating past. Added to which it has qualities that although sidelined now, may prove to be useful in the future. Already feral goats of Old English type have been used to revitalise over bred dairy breeds of Modern Swiss type in England.

Putting it bluntly, the Old Irish goat is a breed on the edge of extinction, critically endangered in fact, and unless a concentrated effort is made to save it, it will soon drift into oblivion.

Why is this? It has already been pointed out that the breed is extinct in domestication. It still exists in the feral state, but is by no means secure. The ma-jority of, if not all, feral herds in Ireland are based upon the Old Irish goat, al -though over time goats of Modern origin have been released or escaped to join them. There are herds now that are decisively of Modern origin although, miracu-lously, the old breed does survive, albeit precariously, in their midst. An added problem is that the feral goat in Ireland, as with Wales, Scotland and England, is not protected by law, being regarded as neither a wild nor a domesticated an-imal, and so falling outside of legislation. This means that herds can be rounded up overnight, and a possibly vital part of the breed’s surviving genetic heritage and diversity lost.

This explains why the Mulranny feral goat may turn out to be so important.

THE IMPORTANTS OF THE MULRANNY FERAL GOAT

Saving the Old Irish goat in general

There are two strands to saving the breed, the first being to make a con-certed effort to preserve any herds of Old Irish type that remain, the second to remove any goats of the right type from mongrelized herds to consolidate a cap-tive breeding programme:

1. Identify herds of the old type. Secure them from future persecution and introgression: monitor for wholesale rounding up and removal; wandering males of mixed type; random shooting; trophy hunting

2. Identify herds of mixed type that still maintain individuals of the old type

3. Start a captive breeding programme using selected ferals. Maintain a herd book; select for genetic and phenotypic diversity (preventing inbreeding and maintaining the old unimproved type); find outlets for small groups and male groups for a rolling breeding programme

4. Find outlets for stock of the old type at heritage sites, in wildlife parks and grazing animal schemes

5. If possible, carry out an all Ireland survey of feral herds and their status

6. Carry out a DNA study to help establish a genetic profile for the breed, looking for unique genetic markers. Link this with studies already undertaken/being undertaken around the Northern breed group and various breeds of Modern type. Establish the phenotypic parameters of the breed

The range of types in the Irish feral goat

Any work that is undertaken will need to take note of the range of types to be seen in various Irish feral herds. These may be summarized as:

1. Purebred. Old Irish phenotype; no indicators for introgression; all characteristics in keeping with our present knowledge of the breed.

2. Stabilized mixed type. New phenotype based on absorption of Mod-ern characteristics into a largely old Irish base; settled as basically similar to the Old Irish. Introgression in the past has produced a type that is an amalgam of Old Irish and Modern. Key indicators are: larger size; larger ears with different set; tassels; coat silkier, finer, closer, smoother; may lack under wool; head shape shorter, more triangular, courser; facial profile straight; males may be short-coated; alien colour patterns; abundance of polled goats; horns thin or with a low angle of emergence. May have an overall look of a landrace, and lack the extreme characteristics that define improved stock. In some instances the absorption is complete and a recogniz-able new type has emerged.

3. Mix and match of Old Irish/Modern. Absorption incomplete and un-even. A variable unfixed type. Recent introgression. Uneven in type, ranging from pure Old Irish, through variable crossing to goats of Modern type. Includes nondescripts.

4. Recent Modern introductions; Modern goat types present, recent in-troductions. Goats of largely or wholly Modern type. Indicators in-clude head very small in proportion to body/neck; facial profile straight, merging with forehead, arched or convex; head short and blunt; dairy conformation (wedge-shaped, meaning back line straight but belly line slopes downwards towards udder); scrubland conformation (belly line straight, but back rises towards the hindquarters); body short and square; legs fine boned; large size; tassels; coat glossy, sleek or fine; male coat fine and smooth; large udder; ears large, drooping or semi-lop, set forwards or outwards; horns thin or set at a low angle; characteristically polled. Recent in-troductions may still have collars or string leads attached.

5. Scrub Swiss type. Herds ‘swamped’ by Modern goat stock may sta-bilize as a scrub Swiss type.

6. Feral herds of wholly Modern origin. No Old Irish base.

7. Feral herds whose origin is neither of Old nor Modern type. One herd identified to date, the Bilberry goat.

Developing a system for evaluating herds with an Old Irish base

Consider the overall phenotypic ‘jizz’. Is it even or uneven?

If even, is it:

1. Of wholly Old Irish phenotype, and likely to be purebred?

2. Showing clear signs of mongrelisation, albeit stabilized

If 2, is it:

1. A new type with an Old Irish base? The jizz is basically old Irish, but there are subtle changes

2. A new type indicating introgression has swamped the herd with Modern characteristics. Jizz is of a scrub goat of overall Swiss type

If uneven, is it:

1. A mongrel type with variable characteristics indicative of both Old Irish and Modern breeding? Largely unblended; has not found a new level

2. Old Irish base with Modern types and crosses present

If 2, is it:

1. Showing no signs of introgression yet, but goats of Modern type present

2. Showing evidence of various stages of crossing

How this relates to the Mulranny goat and the feral herds of the Burren in rela-tion to a cline

The foregoing may be presented as a cline:

1. Purebred Old Irish

2. Recent introductions of Modern type, no signs of cross-breeding

3. A new type with an Old Irish base

4. Old Irish base, some evidence of Modern crossing

5. Mongrelisation with a cline of types from Old Irish to Modern

6. New type with a Modern base

7. Wholly of Modern origin

The various herds of the Burren fall into the categories 3, 4 and 5, whereas the Mulranny herd may be in category 1 with a query over one individual that could be a scrub Modern (if introduced) or stabilized crossing of largely Modern pheno-type.

Evaluating the Irish feral goat generally and the importance of the Mulranny feral goat

Whereas the feral goats of the Burren have an Old Irish base (1), a lengthy period of introgression has produced a new and mongrelized type that is very much like the old breed with significant changes (3). There are recent introduc-tions of Modern type too, so that introgression is ongoing with goats showing signs of recent crossing. Some herds have been mongrelized to the point that there is a cline of types between a remnant of Old Irish and recent releases of Modern stock. It is evident that the Burren feral goat will eventually stabilize as a distinct type that may approximate to (3), although some herds may settle as largely of Modern but scrub type.

In the case of the Mulranny goat, the overall jizz, as evaluated from photographs, is essentially Old Irish. One goat may reflect some introgression in the past, al-though it is a rather strange individual that equally could have been introduced. It is incompatible with the overall jizz of the herd.

A way forward

The following is suggested:

1. An investigation of the jizz and phenotypic characteristics of the herd in the field (winter coat)

2. A further study during the late kidding season

3. Collation of information on the history of the herd, gained from doc-umentation and local knowledge

4. A wider study to define the herd in relation to a wider feral got pop-ulation (open system; group; herd; population)

5. Monitoring for introgression

6. Publicity with regard to the value of the herd in any attempt to pre-serve and promote the Old Irish breed

7. A DNA study to help define the parameters of the breed

End piece

Twenty-three breeds of domestic livestock became extinct in the British Isles during the last century.

A case in point is the Irish Dun, a breed of cattle that could have contributed to the efficiency of the modern dairy industry. Its remarkable qualities and precari-ous status were recognized as long ago as 1842, and when David Low wrote the following in his work, the ‘Domesticated Animals of the British Isles’: the polled Irish breed has long been diminishing in numbers, and, from long neglect, will probably in a few years cease to be found. Had attention been directed at an earlier period to its preservation, Ireland might have now possessed a true Dairy Breed, not surpassed by any in the kingdom.

But nothing was done, and a valuable dairy breed that had the capacity for com-mercial success was irretrievably lost, being officially declared extinct as late as 1974.

The parallel with the Old Irish goat isn’t exact, as it can by no means be thought of as a valuable dairy breed of goat with a commercial potential. But it must not be dismissed as irrelevant, even so, its values lying in the fact that it symbolizes tradition and heritage. It is living history, an invaluable component of how we visualize, acknowledge and ultimately appreciate Ireland’s rich heritage. A herit-age museum can reconstruct, say, an early Nineteenth Century farm by way of buildings, utensils, implements and so on. But it would be a travesty if the goat pegged at the door, to symbolize the importance of the goat to Irish rural life his-torically, had to be a Swiss Saanen because the Old Irish goat had been irretriev-ably lost.

In ‘The Chance to Survive’, a book on rare breeds by Lawrence Alderson, the au-thor reproduces a photograph he took in Tuscany in 1980. It shows the last purebred Garfagina cow. She was twenty-four years of age at the time, and with her passing a traditional Italian breed of cattle would pass into oblivion.

Let us hope that the Old Irish goat can be saved for all time, that the Mulranny goat will play an important part in this, and that at some future date a book on rare and extinct breeds of livestock will not contain a photograph of the last known purebred Old Irish goat, with a sentiment echoing that of David Low in re-lation to the Irish Dun cow that reads:

The Old Irish goat was long diminished in numbers, and, from long neglect, ceased to be found after a few years. Had attention been directed at an earlier period to its preservation, Ireland might have been able to save its original landrace breed of goat, retaining an animal that was symbolic of Ireland’s his-tory and heritage and useful in grazing schemes and land management, along with a huge potential for its renaissance as a utility goat par excellence for small -holders.