THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MULRANNY FERAL GOAT,

COUNTY MAYO, TO THE PRESERVATION AND

PROMOTION 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
explained by standard goat breed origins and historical distribution, or by the
‘Invasion theory’ relating to patterns of human migration and movements
historically. 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,
preserve 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
foreign 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
preservation of herds that are uniformly of the right phenotype, although it may
prove necessary 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

knowledge 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

undertaken. 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
become 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
heritage of bloodlines, the legacy of co-mingling the various peoples who have
arrived on its shores since the Ice Age. Thus it was that a small population of
Palaeolithic 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
migrations 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
Palaeolithic people throughout Europe at the close of the Ice Age, but due to
movement 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 Ireland 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
nutshell, 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
cleansing 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
uniform 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 exemplified
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
originating 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,
meaning 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
respectively, 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

distinctly 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
Standard 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
Standard 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
elsewhere 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
introduction of settled agriculture during the Neolithic proper. It has long been
argued, in trying to explain the distribution of primitive, short-tailed moufflonoid
sheep around Europe’s Atlantic periphery, that this is the case; supported by
osteological 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
development of settled agriculture in the Middle East. In this respect dating is of
the utmost 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
pastoralist-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
bedecked 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
flooding 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
suffocated (nasal passages becoming blocked with ice) and then froze. We can
envisage 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
Central 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
thoroughly 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
improvement 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,
focussing 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
onwards resulted in the establishing of the Toggenburg and Saanen, with their
offshoot 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
domestication, being now found in only four feral herds along the Border Hills of
Northern England.

What can we say? In Ireland at the present time history is

repeating 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

(Standard 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
domestication, 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
majority of, if not all, feral herds in Ireland are based upon the Old Irish goat,
although 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,
miraculously, 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 animal, 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
concerted 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
captive 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

Modern 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 recognizable new type has emerged.
 3. Mix and match of Old Irish/Modern. Absorption incomplete and
uneven. 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

introductions. Goats of largely or wholly Modern type. Indicators
include 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
introductions may still have collars or string leads attached.

5. Scrub Swiss type. Herds ‘swamped’ by Modern goat stock may

stabilize 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
relation 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
phenotype.

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
introductions 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,
although 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

documentation and local knowledge

4. A wider study to define the herd in relation to a wider feral got

population (open system; group; herd; population)

5. Monitoring for introgression

6. Publicity with regard to the value of the herd in any attempt to

preserve 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
precarious 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
commercial 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
heritage 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 historically, had to be a Swiss Saanen because the Old Irish goat had been
irretrievably lost.

In ‘The Chance to Survive’, a book on rare breeds by Lawrence Alderson, the

author 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
relation 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
history 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
smallholders.