The National History Museum situated beside the Dáil in Merrion Square Dublin is re-opening to-day, This museum, which is part of The National Museum of Ireland, is a zoological museum containing diverse collections of world wildlife. The Irish Room, on the ground floor, is devoted largely to Irish mammals, sea-creatures and insects. And who do we find there in a large glass cabinet shared with the polar bear and the grizzly but Ch Ouborough Acushla. I’ll let judge L A Loraine speak for us –
Ch Ouborough Acushla (born 1925)
“In this breed I had the pleasure of seeing one of the finest animals of any variety that is has been my lot so far. What have you breeders of Irish Wolfhounds being trying for? To produce an animal somewhat approaching the mythical stories of the giant dogs that inhabited Ireland in past ages. It has been a great effort and one that has produced some beautiful hounds, but never til now have you succeeded in producing a dog so nearly reaching in size and grandeur the old stories of the breed. Acushla of Ouborough’s commanding presence, enormous size, her wonderful proportions, a neck of such length and strong enough to hold an ox, great fine shoulders, a bit higher over the withers than the loin – it is the reverse in many of the breed; a helpless looking fault in a hound, I think – great strong loin and powerful quarters; the whole animal set on good limbs and with movement that would not disgrace a terrier”.
Extract from Report of Irish Wolfhounds by N.A. Loraine, Metropolitan & Essex Canine Society’s Show 1926
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