According to Wikipedia ... straw dogs were used as ceremonial objects in ancient China. Chapter 5 of the Tao Te Ching begins with the lines "Heaven and Earth are heartless / treating creatures like straw dogs." Su Ch'e comments, "Heaven and Earth were not partial. They do not kill living things out of cruelty or give them birth out of kindness. We do the same when we make straw dogs to use in sacrifices. We dress them up and put them on the altar, but not because we love them. And when the ceremony is over, we throw them into the street, but not because we hate them."[1]
Of course the website name also came from the local Straw dogs (belonging to the McAllisters? Pat Miles? the Jamie Mick Kellys? the Jim Joe Kellys?) I used to hear howling at the Angelus bell or, less frequently but more appropriately, at the slow, mournful, funeral bell, pealing out over the Whitewater vale from the chapel in Straw, Ballinascreen, Co. Derry, Ireland, back in the 1950s. You can sniff around this website using the tabs at the top of the page or take your chances by clickingon any one of the Strawdogs below and let him/her lead you on a walk to parts unknown. Howl on!
Fionn - Frank Kelly's/Mary Vallely's
(1930-40s)
Puddy - Jim Joe Kelly's (1950s)
Sandy - Jim Joe's (1940-50s)
? Un-named Strawdog in front of McAllister's pub and shop. (1960s)
Last but far from least is Looloo, not exactly a Strawdog as the ones above but an honorary strawdog nonetheless. Sadly Looloo died in 2022 of old age (14) but was always ready to take on the hrududu in Toronto; hated cars with a passion (especially Mercs) to the point of being willing to attack the biggest SUVandals; a hog dog with pug-nacity aplenty, channeling Puddy, Fionn and others. Roughly translated, her bark (even worse than her byte) means ... "We shall fight [cars] on the highways, we shall fight in the parking lots, we shall fight on the roads and on the streets, we shall fight on the lanes and the trails; we shall never surrender." click on her image to get you to her dogrel or here and she will lead you to her barking mad dogblog.
Looloo was a Hound of the óclaig. *óclaig (pronounced oak-leg) The óclaig were capricious otherworldly visitors to Finn MacCumhaill's fiann, his band of outlaw warriors who challenged kings and chiefs in Irish mythology. The wind that blasted from below the tails of the óclaig's hounds could blow enemies (or friends) out to sea or into "the fiery wall" . Looloo, too, could clear a room with what issued from the same source.