Greyhounds have always been important in Irish culture. Opening with a reading of ‘The Irish Greyhound’ (1663) by Katherine Philips, ‘the Matchless Orinda’, the chapter goes on to detail the later history of a type of hunting dog sometimes known as ‘the Celtic hound’ or the ‘wolfdog of Ireland’, drawing attention to the research of the folk historians of the Celtic Revival such as Lady Wilde and Lady Gregory. In the nineteenth century regulated hare coursing became established as the quintessential Irish field sport, a national predilection that prepared the way for the whole-hearted endorsement of greyhound racing when it arrived in Ireland in the early twentieth century. The dogs, as the chapter demonstrates in critical detail, remained both symbolically and realistically present in the ‘big house’ novels of Elizabeth Bowen, Henry Green and Aidan Higgins, as well as in the short stories of William Trevor.