Tadhg the Irish Wolfhound

04/15/2016

Today is the 9th birthday of our gentle giant, Tadhg the Irish wolfhound

Nine years is a grand old age for an Irish wolfhound -- well beyond the average lifespan. If you love dogs, gorgeous scenery, beautiful music, and / or if you've met Tadhg, we hope you'll enjoy this brief video I put together to recall some of the special moments we've had with the big fella since we helped rescue him a little over two years ago while living in Ireland.

The lovely music piece is "Caoineadh Cú Chulainn" (Lament for Culann's Hound) by Davy Spillane.

"Go mín le bánaí, ach briogtha le báiní" was the phrase used for the great hounds of Ireland in times past. "Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked." These giant creatures were bred to be fast enough to chase down wolves, and big enough to overpower them. They also marched into battle with the old Irish nobility, no doubt a fear-inducing sight for the enemy. These days, they're all gentle when stroked *AND* gentle when provoked ... and Tadhg is certainly no exception to that! :-)

We've had two great years with this special guy, and we hope we'll have at least a few more. Enjoy!

Celebrating our gentle giant's 9th birthday with a video of a handful of the special moments we've had with him over the past two years. We helped rescue Tad...

03/17/2016

Here's a special Paddy's Day offer from our new business from Tadhg and the whole family. For all you friends of Tadhg outside the USA ... we do ship internationally, but it certainly isn't inexpensive! :-)

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh!

Happy Paddy's Day, folks! Let's take 20% off your order today.

Did you know that Ironclad Coffee Roasters was "born" in Ireland? 'Tis true, so it is! Our founder, Ryan Patrick O'Rourke, was living in Ireland when he learned to roast coffee at home ... and here we are a few years later with Ironclad up and running in the good ol' USA! This is one of many, many photos Ryan captured while living in his ancestral homeland for almost five years.

To help celebrate this most Irish of all days, we invite you to take 20% of your entire order of Ironclad coffee and / or merchandise. Simply enter the code "Paddy" (without the quotation marks) at checkout! Start shopping at www.Ironclad.coffee now.

Oh, and please feel free to share this offer and the corresponding photo far and wide with all your friends and family! :-)

03/17/2016

Happy Paddy's Day from our Irish boys, Tadhg Finn and Fergus Glen! :-) Tadhg and Fergus are still loving life in the USA. They have loads and loads of new fans here in Richmond, and plenty of new doggie buddies, as well.

01/06/2016

Hello, Everyone! Long time, no talk. The big fella is loving life here in the USA.

We just wanted to let you know (as promised) that the WebStore for our new coffee roastery is now open for business. This is what will enable us to keep food in Tadhg's bowl. :-)

Please pass this along to anyone you know who is a coffee lover. Thanks, and we hope your new year is getting off to a flying start!

11/05/2015

This is our challenge every time we come home: How to open the front door with an Irish wolfhound laying up against it who isn't interested in moving ...

11/04/2015

The doc doesn't think it's anything too serious, so that's good news. He has lost some weight, and we don't know why. We'll keep a close eye on him over the next several days. Thanks so much for loving our boy. 😊

11/04/2015

Our big buddy hasn't quite been himself the past couple days, so we're taking him in to see the vet a bit later today. If you're a praying person, please offer up a petition for Tadhg. He's been such a strong and healthy fellow, hopefully this is just something small and he'll be back to his usual d***y and silly self very soon. Thanks for keeping up with the big fella.

10/20/2015

Tadhg is taking to the gloriously beautiful autumn afternoons in Richmond, Virginia, USA quite well.

08/27/2015

Tadhg is chillin'. He certainly is thankful for air conditioning and comfy sofas here in the USA.

08/26/2015

Yes, it's probably true ... there are way too many of these national / international "this and that" days. However, if there should be *ANY* such day it should probably be a National Dog Day!

08/24/2015

Here are a few photos of Tadhg with his two brothers and his three American cousins who he just met only a week ago ...

08/14/2015

We landed safely in the USA yesterday along with Tadhg and his two furry brothers. They did amazingly well in their travel crates on the flight from Ireland. They had to build a custom crate for Tadhg ... you can see the size of it in the photo below.

After the plan pulled into the gate, the very first thing unloaded from the cargo hold was Tadhg and his crate. We could see the ground crew all gathering around snapping photos of the big fella with their phones. :-)