Tara the Jack Russell with owner Maire.
A tiny Jack Russell dog is being hailed a hero after it saved a singing festival in a Donegal gaeltacht village.
Residents in Falcarragh were left red-faced after its prize trophy went missing just days before its annual Sean-nos singing festival.
The prestigious event attracts singers from across Ireland and was due to be opened by Minister of State at the Department of the Gaeltacht, Joe McHugh.
But disaster struck when the Corn Chuimhneacháin Éamonn Ghráinne (or the Éamonn Ghráinne memorial cup) went missing from An tSean Bheairic arts and cultural centre.
Organisers were left distraught and had started a search for a new trophy.
Tara and the trophy.
But in a bizarre twist of faith, manager of the centre Maire Ni Chasaide had called to the centre with her dog Tara.
Tara needed a call of nature and Maire duly let her roam free.
That is when she noticed Tara rummaging in a piece of overgrowth next to a skip, and saw that something was grabbing the dog’s attention.
“I went over to see what Tara was sniffing and scratching at”, Máire said, “and to my amazement, I saw a number of items in the bushes with something shiny in the middle of them. It was the cup. I was absolutely delighted”.
It's not clear how the trophy ended up under the overgrowth in the first place.
But Máire thinks the cup may have being inadvertently dumped during a spring-clean of the venue last week. The trophy had being packed in a cardboard box along with other items, and the manager believes the box may have being mistaken for items of rubbish and thrown onto the skip.
“As the skip was full, the box and its contents may have fallen into the overgrowth”, Ní Chasaide said.
She said the group are absolutely delighted that Tara helped find this very important trophy.
The Éamoinn Ghráinne sean-nós competition is one of the most important events the group organises organise. The competition and cup are named after the late Éamoinn Ghráinne Mac Ruairí of Tory Island and Falcarragh, who was highly respected as a singer, musician and folklorist and is acknowledged as one of the masters of the Donegal sean-nós singing tradition.
"Some of the best exponents of sean-nós singing in the county participate in this prestigious competition and it would have being catastrophic to have lost a trophy that means a lot to so many people. ”
And now Tara's cunning exploits in sniffing the trophy out have not gone unrewarded.
While she may not receive a year's supply of dog food like the famous english dog Pickles who recovered the World Cup in 1966 when it had been stolen, Tara is to get a big thank you.
Local butcher Josie Doohan, the chairman of an tSean Bheairic said “Those of us who remember the story of Pickles and the World cup trophy will know that particular dog became an international celebrity and was rewarded with a year's free supply of dog food. Although, we are unable to match that, as a retired butcher I can guarantee that Tara will be presented with the best quality prime T-bone steak to be got in Donegal”.
