The Galway can, perhaps, be regarded as a joint production by Irish and English breeders.

During the 18^th century, the agricultural improver, Robert Bakewell, soon to be famous the world over and the correspondent of kings, princes and foreign diplomats, began to develop a superior sheep on his farm at Dishley Grange in Leicestershire.

Bakewell did not confine his efforts to sheep; he developed the Longhorn breed of cattle, and working horses that became the ancestors of the Shire breed. He also produced an improved type of pig, and even constructed canals on his farm, in order to float his turnip crop to the yard, rather than using labour to cart it.

Bakewell used some revolutionary techniques to improve the old Midland Longwool sheep. He introduced Ryeland and Merino blood. He identified his best animals and inbred them, often very closely, to fix his desired type, a neater, better fleshed animal, with a shorter fleece of better quality wool.

Then, having established his reputation as a breeder of superior stock, he hired out his rams at high prices, thereby, at considerable profit and with no risk, identifying the superior sires, which he then used in his own flock. This procedure, known as progeny testing, has since been used by livestock improvers everywhere, though none have been able, as Bakewell did, to make the testing itself profitable.

Bakewell also had a few other tricks, one of which was to put his cull ewes deliberately onto wet land, where he knew they would pick up liver fluke. This had two advantages. The ewes, on becoming infected, initially put on weight, ensuring a better price, and Bakewell could rest assured that, if anyone tried to get his breeding cheaply by buying his culls, they would not survive until the next breeding season!

He did all this years before Mendel discovered the principles of inheritance, and a century and a half before Mendel's work was published. Robert Bakewell was a remarkable man.

From the late 17^th century onwards, English Longwools had been exported to Ireland to be crossed with the local sheep. .

From the middle of the 18th century, these unimproved Longwools were followed to Ireland by large numbers of Dishley Leicesters, also known as New or Improved Leicesters.

Bakewell himself actively promoted exports to Ireland, and sent his nephew, Mr Honeybourne, to Ireland on what would now be regarded as sales promotion trips.

Also influential in establishing the Dishley breed in Ireland was Lord Roscommon, later the Earl of Sheffield, one time close friend of Bakewell and an astute career politician.

As well as being involved in the establishment of the Board of Agriculture, Sheffield managed to acquire large estates in the West of Ireland, where, apparently, he insisted that his tenants used Bakewell rams.

Bakewell's bankruptcy, from which he was rescued by subscriptions from well-wishers, was said to have resulted from his not being paid for sheep sent to Ireland.

At any rate, Bakewell's loss was Ireland's gain, for the late 18^th century stock, described by Bakewell's pupil Culley, on a trip to Ballinasloe Fair, as " An ugly sheep, with nothing to recommend them except their size", were, within a few years, transformed.

Dutton wrote, in 1824, "When I first came to Ballinasloe, having heard so much of Connaught sheep, I was not a little surprised at seeing such multitudes with thick legs, booted with coarse wool down to their heels, and such a bushy wig of coarse wool on their heads, that you could scarcely perceive their eyes; at present they have nearly all disappeared, and given place to a fine breed, not to be equalled by the general stock of long-woolled sheep in England"

The sheep farms of the West of Ireland were large, often several thousand acres in extent, and generally English owned. Not surprisingly, there was initially some resistance to the new sheep, which were referred to as "the bull breed", and sometimes killed by the local inhabitants.

There were also some imports to Ireland, particularly in the early 19^th century, of Southdowns, Lincolns and Merinos and these may have had some influence on the development of the sheep stock of the West of Ireland. However, all these breeds were imported in small numbers and the Dishley Leicester was undoubtedly the major influence.

By 1870 the improved type had been fixed, become known as the Roscommon breed, and was recognised by the Royal Dublin Society, which provided classes for the bred at its shows.

A breed society was established in 1895 and the first volume of the Flock Book of Roscommon Long-Wool Sheep was published in 1896.

The Roscommon was a large, white-faced polled breed and, though classified as Longwool, did not have the very long staple characteristic of breeds such as the Lincoln and Leicester Longwool.

It bore, as the Galway does, an almost uncanny resemblance to surviving prints and paintings of Bakewell's sheep, being perhaps, closer to the Dishley breed than any of the English breeds which were influenced by Bakewell's stock.

Until the early part of the 20^th century the Galway was not mentioned, as it was simply a slightly smaller, neater, and more easily fed variant of the Roscommon.

However, by the early 1920s, the Roscommon was beginning to lose ground to the smaller type and the breed society was ailing.

A 1924 Flock Book of the Roscommon Sheep-Breeders' Association shows that the old society was in serious trouble, with only five breeders registering rams. Indeed, in that year, 187 ewes were admitted by inspection, in what eventually proved to be a vain attempt to increase the registered population.

The Galway Sheep Breeder's Society was founded by a group of breeders in Athenry, Co. Galway, in 1923, the year after the establishment of the Irish Free State. At that time over 6,000 ewes and 200 rams were inspected and the best 10% were admitted to the new flock book.

This number of sheep clearly did not suddenly appear, and it would seem almost certain that what the new society was doing was selecting good examples of the smaller type from the existing population of Roscommon type sheep.

It is likely that the establishment of the society also reflected a desire to establish an Irish identity and to separate from institutions which had, until partition, been controlled by the Ascendancy.

Interestingly, the vast majority of the 50 members of the Roscommon society listed in the 1924 book, many of whom had English names, were from County Roscommon, with no breeder listed from Galway, so the separation of the two breeds may also have reflected an element of local rivalry.

One of the earliest breeders was Patrick Sice, whose flock continues to this day, under the management of Society Secretary, Tom Sice. Stock from this flock has been included in two of the three consignments imported to Great Britain.

Tom Sice helping to select the first consignment for Great Britain in 1990

 The Galway Sheep Breeders Society pursued progressive policies, admitting flocks by inspection, provided that they were true to type, of the required quality and in good health, until 1953, when the flock book was closed.

To ensure quality, the Society introduced inspection of all lambs registered, tattooing of lambs by the Society recorder and, to ensure accuracy of pedigrees, a ruling that no pedigree Galway breeder could keep a ram of another breed on his premises.

In the 1950s and 60s Premium Ram schemes in Counties Galway, Clare, Mayo and Roscommon encouraged commercial ram breeders to buy pedigree Galway rams.

In 1969 the recording scheme, coupled with selection for prolificacy was introduced.

So successful was the breed that, by 1965, 30% of the sheep flock of Ireland was of Galway type.

However, in recent years, the Galway began to lose ground to imported breeds, such as the Suffolk and Texel, a matter of fashion, rather than of any defect in the Galway. Though, as is normal for a ram producing breed, the pedigree population had never been particularly high, a small nucleus being able to produce sufficient quality rams to maintain a large pure-bred population of commercial Galways, by March 1994 the pedigree population was at risk, with only 12 breeders and 300 pedigree ewes.

The Society took two important steps to deal with the situation.

It once again opened its flock book, allowing registration of flocks with a history of using pedigree Galway rams to be registered by inspection.

It combined with the Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust to set the modest objective of an increase in the registered population to 100 ewes within 5 years.

Following representations by the Trust to the Department of Agriculture, the Galway breed is now included in the EC supported Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), through which breeders may obtain an additional subsidy as an aid to breed conservation. With the establishment, in addition of an active breed society and a growing Galway population in Great Britain, the future of the breed looks bright.