Mac Tíre Coloring Pages
Picture a whole country so full of wolves that people named it after them. That was Ireland about 400 years ago, when visitors from England called it Wolf-land!
The everyday Irish word for wolf is mac tíre, which means "son of the countryside," a pretty great name for an animal that ruled the hills and forests.
Want your wolf to look like one that really prowled Ireland? Go grey. Irish wolves were grey wolves, darker along the back and shoulders and fading to a creamy colour on the belly, the legs and around the muzzle. Golden eyes make them look extra wild. If you're using pencils, flick short strokes in the direction the fur grows and you'll get a fluffy coat without even trying. Or skip real life completely. A midnight-blue wolf howling at a silver moon would look amazing on the fridge.
Wolves sneak into a lot of the old Irish stories, too, and they don't always play the bad guy...
Raised by Wolves
Cormac mac Airt was going to be one of the most famous kings Ireland ever had, but his life started out pretty rough. When he was a tiny baby, a mother wolf found him and carried him off to her den, and instead of eating him, she raised him with her own cubs. He grew up tumbling around in the dirt with his wolf brothers and sisters until a hunter spotted a human boy running with the pack and brought him home. In some versions, the wolves never forgot him, and they stayed his friends long after he was wearing a crown.
The Wolf Who Walked Up to the Campfire
About 800 years ago, people in Ireland told a story that sounds a lot like a werewolf tale, except nobody in it is the villain. A priest was camping alone in the woods one night when a wolf stepped out of the dark and walked right up to his fire. The priest was terrified, and then things got even stranger, because the wolf spoke to him.
"Don't be afraid," it said. "I'm not really a wolf."
He and his wife were people from Ossory, a kingdom in the middle of Ireland, and they were stuck under an old spell that turned two of its people into wolves for seven years at a time. His wife was very sick, and he'd come to ask for help. The priest followed him through the trees, did what he could, and in the morning the wolf walked him safely back to the road like a polite host seeing a guest to the door.
Ireland's last wild wolves were gone by the end of the 1700s, but the Irish wolfhounds that were bred to chase them are still around. These days they're giant, shaggy softies who'd much rather share the couch than chase anything at all.