The black dog is sometimes a banshee in disguise. It is sometimes a demon bent on mischief and destruction. It is sometimes the stuff of nightmares. We are conditioned by many generations of storytelling to think of the black animal as a threat to our safety, life and wellbeing. Consider then the terror that took hold of the city when it was believed that a black four-legged animal was prowling the streets of Dublin targeting lone women, attacking them with fearful consequences as they flit fearfully along the poorly lit narrow streets. Despite many and widespread searches, no sign of the animal could be found. Safety could be assured for no person, once darkness fell. In this case, however, the four-legged animal was not a black dog, but a black pig. While pigs wandered freely through the streets of eighteenth-century Dublin, the Dolocher was different. It prowled the night and it attacked without warning. The belief was that the beast was the ghost of a convicted murderer and rapist, who had committed suicide in the Black Dog Jail that stood in the Cornmarket area of the city.
