This illustration was created for Praising the Dead, a group exhibition organised by Illustrators Ireland. The show invites visitors to “Meet our Historic Irish Icons” through a series of A2 artworks created by contemporary illustrators, each reflecting on loss, legacy, and memory through an Irish cultural lens. The exhibition launches at Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in Belfast on 8 May 2025 and runs until 13 June, before travelling to the Irish Embassy in Slovakia later in the year as part of a touring programme.
Each participating illustrator was asked to select a historical figure or symbol with personal or cultural significance. I chose to depict the Irish grey wolf — a native species once widespread across the island, but now extinct. The wolf continues to hold symbolic weight in Irish folklore, often representing wildness, independence, and the tension between human and natural worlds. Rather than commemorating a single individual, I wanted to acknowledge a creature whose disappearance speaks to a broader pattern of loss — both ecological and cultural — that continues to shape how we see the Irish landscape today.
The wolf stands amongst a carpet of bluebells, which in this context are not just decorative, but symbolic. Bluebells are closely associated with ancient woodland — the original and natural habitat of the Irish grey wolf. Their inclusion speaks to the environmental history of the island and the link between species extinction and habitat destruction. Ireland currently has one of the lowest rates of forest cover in Europe, with woodland accounting for only around 11% of its landmass — a stark contrast to the European average of over 33%. In referencing this, the illustration becomes not only a quiet memorial to the wolf, but a reflection on erasure, survival, and how memory is carried not only through people, but also through place and ecology.
