Guinea fowl (was- What kind of birds are these?)

Quaderno

This is my first post here and I have to apologize first that I am rather clueless about the native birds of Ireland, so maybe the question I am going to ask may appear to be silly to some of you.
But anyway: today I visited Killarney National Park in snow and glorious sunshine and about halfway up between Muckross and Ladies View I spotted two big birds at the side of the road I couldn't name. They didn't appear to be particularly shy, so I stopped and took a few pictures which may help in identifying them. At first I thought they may be young/female pheasants, but they seemed way to big for that and the shape of the bill doesn't fit either. So what species do they belong to? Thanks in advance for any cues, because I really would like to know who they were...

Mr Digger

Guinea Fowl, we used to put them in with pheasants, best fox alarm out.

Quaderno

That was quick, thanks a lot! And again I have learned something.
I didn't know that Guinea Fowl occur in the wild in Ireland, since they appear to be originally native to Africa. They probably weren't to happy about the snow then
Would they have been introduced into the National Park at some stage to serve as game birds or do you think they could rather be feral successors of escaped breeding fowl from neighboring farms?

Mr Digger

they were introduced as game birds, same as pheasants. They would breed in the wild same as pheasants, I'm open to correction from more knowledgable peeps on this site.

Quaderno

Thanks Mr Digger, that's all I needed to know to be able to sleep tonight. Boards.ie is always great for valuable lessons

Feargal as Luimneach

There domestic guineafowl. They are not considered wild in Ireland. They are the domesticated version of helmeted guineafowl. Thay are much heavier than the wild birds. Here's a photo from my holidays of the wild bird:

Birdnuts

There are now wild/feral populations in France AFAIK:)

Not a patch though on the wild Vultrine GF i saw in Kenya last year:D