A Celtic Legend of Tireragh

When Wolves Ruled the Forests

Long ago, when Ireland’s forests whispered with shadows and the wild ran free, the Barony of Tireragh lay under the watch of the O’Dowds, Chieftains of Skreen, Dromard, and Easky.

The land was alive with myth and danger. Wolves roamed the dark woods, their cries echoing through the valleys. But as the years passed, one wolf rose above the rest, a beast of cunning, strength, and shadow. It stalked the flocks of Tireragh, vanishing like mist before hunters could strike.

No snare could hold it.
No tracker could follow it.
And though hunters scoured the land, slaying wolves across Ireland, still the killings went on.

The people whispered in fear. Was it one wolf… or something more than wolf?

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The Call to the Chieftain

At last, the people turned to their Chieftain, O’Dowd. His power was not only in his sword and rule, but in his bond with a famed Irish wolfhound, a hound said to be as swift as wind and as fearless as fire.

The villagers pleaded: “Unleash the hound, or we are lost.”

O’Dowd listened, then rode to the pastures where blood had been spilled. There, beneath the looming Tireragh mountains, he loosed his wolfhound upon the trail.

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The Great Chase

The beast’s scent was found near a wood. The wolfhound lowered its head, eyes burning with instinct, and the chase began.

Through forest and glen they ran. Over streams, across stones, into the heart of the wild. The wolf moved like shadow, but the hound pursued like storm.

At last, at a pine wood near the foot of Tireragh’s mountains, the hound caught the wolf. With a clash of fury, the struggle ended. The wolf fell.

And with it, the last wild echo of Ireland’s forests faded.

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The Legacy of Carrow na Madhoo

Peace returned to Tireragh. The fields lay quiet, the people safe once more. But the place where the beast was slain would forever be remembered as Carrow na Madhoo — The Dog’s Quarter.

To honor the moment, O’Dowd had the tale carved in stone upon his castle at Ardnaglass. That stone, the Tireragh Stone, still bears the mark of the Irish wolfhound, carved for eternity.

Preserved by the Royal Irish Academy in 1841, it whispers to us still:
The story of the last wolf in Sligo.

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Why This Legend Endures

This tale is not only about the fall of a beast, but about the end of an age.
An age when Ireland’s wilderness roared with wolves, when clans rose and fell, and when stories lived longer than stone.

The Last Wolf of Sligo is more than history.
It is legend, carved in memory.