From the hunting fields of County Limerick to the tidal shores of Connemara, two rare survivors of Ireland’s past take centre stage.

In the final episode of the Native Breeds series, I explore the history and heritage of the Kerry Beagle — a deep-chested scent hound with roots in Celtic hunting traditions — and the Cladoir Sheep, a small coastal breed once thought extinct but rediscovered grazing on seaweed in the west.

Their stories stretch from medieval hunting laws to famine-era survival, from 19th-century agricultural reports to 21st-century DNA conservation projects. Both came close to vanishing. Both endured because someone cared enough to keep them alive.

🎧 Listen in for a journey through hunts, coastlines, folklore, and the people who refused to let these breeds disappear.

Native Breed Series – The Irish Honeybee

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.”

Ireland’s dark honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, has been part of this island’s story for 5,000 years: shaping laws, folklore, farming, and faith — before disease, imports, and neglect nearly erased it.

This week, Liam Blake tells its story: from Neolithic settlers and medieval hive laws, to rural “bee lore” and the modern DNA rescue mission keeping this native pollinator alive.

🐐 Native Breed Series – The Old Irish Goat

“The goat was the poor man’s cow.”

This week, we’re telling the story of Ireland’s only native goat — a five-thousand-year survivor that gave milk to the poor, parchment to monks, and placenames to our maps, before almost vanishing in the 20th century.

Join me, Liam Blake, as I trace its journey from Neolithic farms to nineteenth-century goat droves, to a modern DNA rescue mission on a Mayo hillside. This is history that eats gorse for breakfast.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.