"Dear Sir, We were requested to send this example of a dog standing on three legs by a friend of yours. No doubt you will guess who. Regards, Bridie Brittain." And the address was Wildlife Mobile, Ben and Bridie Brittain, Old Parish, Dungarvan, County Waterford. It's a neat black affair showing the familiar outline of the Kerry Blue, tail up, neatly squared off muzzle. The forelegs' outline is about twice the breadth of the rear legs, but with all due respects, it does not show a dog on three legs. another shot comes from the Great Instigator of all this, himself, Basil Blackshaw. It is a postcard, published in Dublin, apparently and shows a very untidy terrier with a heading "Reward for the Return of Lost Irish Terrier: Three legs, blind in left eye, missing left ear, tail broken, answers to the name of "Lucky".
Back to the Kerry Blue Terrier or Brocaire Gorm. Attached to the mobile was a short piece about the possible history of the breed. One is that an all black dog was washed ashore from a wreck in Tralee Bay in the 18th century and was bred with indigenous terriers. But many now believe it was an ancient Irish breed, perhaps partly descended from the wolfhound.
The breed was very popular in the 1920s. The Dublin Blue Terrier Club, the card asserts, included Oliver St John Gogarty, Captain Wyndham Quinn of the Vice Regal Lodge and Sir James MacMahon, Under Secretary for Ireland - and Michael Collins. At the club's first show, says our source, RIC and Republican army turned a blind eye to each other.
The Kerry, we learn, too, is intelligent, good tempered, affectionate and courageous with a liking for chasing cats. Some people would add - occasionally very fierce. A man who lived with Kerries in his family for years, said he never saw one go on three legs. So Basil concedes that it may be only the short-legged terriers which regularly go on three legs. Anyway, as the Editor occasionally puts it: This correspondence is now closed.