Wolfland (2013)

There was a time, when over 20,000 wolves roamed Ireland. As super predators they are a natural part of the landscape and ecosystem and are deeply embedded in many of our famous myths and legends. In this documentary series, Dr. Éamonn Ó Ciardha looks at our complex relationship with the Wolf, taking us on a hair raising journey into Ireland's past, exploring the background to what many of us experience as an instinctive fear of the Wolf or Mac Tíre - son of the land. A land that was in increasing turmoil at the turn of the 16th century as plantation settlers began to arrive. For them, the wolf became a fearsome symbol of this wild and dangerous land. Large-scale farming and deforestation saw the wolf rapidly losing its hunting and breeding grounds. But war, rebellion and fighting between settlers and a growing number of Irish rebels provided rich pickings for wolves who would scavenge on the fallen. The terrified settlers called their new home "Wolfland". The first programme in the series looks at the traces and tracks the wolf has left with us in Ireland, within the landscape and place names, the language, the literature and the mythology. Roaming the land for some 20,000 years the wolf was certainly feared, but also revered in Ireland. It was a creature that symbolised strength and courage to the native Irish, but to the arriving settlers from the 16th century onwards the wolf was a dark and savage creature representing all that needed tamed. Filmed across Ireland, this series is a mix of Irish history and natural history, charting the importance of the wolf in Ireland's history and its ultimate extinction.