The Dublin Pug Club is a monthly affair, established in 2012 by lovers of the breed. There is a fence around the whole issue of pugs and you’re bound to be on one side or the other: either inside, playing and cooing with the little scamps, or on the outside, staring in with perplexity. It’s one of those things, not unlike the way people have strong feelings about cats.
The Dublin Pug Club meets in Herbert Park, by the football and rugby pitches and also across town in Phoenix Park, by the monument, and by all accounts is loyally attended. They meet on the third Sunday of every month at 1.30pm. Marie Fuller, an administrator of the Dublin Pug Club Facebook page and regular attendee with her beloved Duke, told us that the Phoenix Park group is a new innovation. “We only started that in February, because more and more people were coming from all over the northside and west of the city centre. Phoenix Park suits them more.”
Around 20 minutes after NewsFour arrived at the pug club the grass is alive with scampering forms. Marie’s Duke is wearing a red kerchief. Why are pugs always dressed up by their owners? The answer is simple: they all look alike, as a breed. “The clothes help to distinguish them,” explains Pauline Graham, who has been attending with her Marlay for around two years. She explains that even if you take your pug for a groom you’ll still have a hard time telling one from the other.
As if on cue, someone walks up with a French bulldog, small with blonde fur, who looks alarmed when she catches the scent of the pugs who outnumber her, resemblances being in the eye of the beholder not in the nose of their pets.
For more information contact the Dublin Pug Club on Facebook: facebook.com/dublinpugclub
By Rúairí Conneely
