The Irish Wolfhound is to feature prominently in a redesigned Irish passport.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that the dog was the most popular animal chosen by public consultation for the next generation passport design, due next year.
Its image will be included as well as updated security features.
Mary Potter, from the Irish Wolfhound Club, is the owner of Boánn – the wolfhound model for the new design.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, she said that Boánn was a good example of the breed.
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“She is three-and-a-half years-old, weighs about 60 kilos or nine-and-a-half-stone, and is around 34 inches to the shoulder,” Ms Potter said.
She said people in Ireland and worldwide love the Irish Wolfhound for their size, strength, courage, loyalty, and link to the “ancient past”.
She described the breed as the “living heartbeat of ancient Ireland” and depicting the dog on the new design passport will now mean a connection between that and “Ireland’s bright future”.
Ms Potter said that the wolfhound was the oldest of Ireland’s nine native Irish breeds of dog as well as the best known and that following a campaign, heritage status was given to all of them in 2019.
She said Irish Wolfhounds are commonly known as “gentle giants” because of their “calm disposition” and you never walk alone with them because of the attention they attract when you take them out.
She said the Irish Wolfhound Club of Ireland is a mother club for the breed worldwide and the dogs will feature strongly in St Patrick’s Day parades next week, including two of them leading the New York parade.
