Keith Erlandson wrote this article in 2000, we have updated the Roll of Honour to 2003 and also added a report on the 2003 Championship.
I have just received from Will Sloan, who now lives in the Isle of Man and is a noted breeder of spaniels and Irish Setters, a Roll of Honour in relation to dogs which have won the Irish Championship for Pointers and Setters, the equivalent event to our Champion Stake, as it is known in mainland Britain.
The list commences with the 1959 winner, Mr E.J. Cunningham's German Shorthaired Pointer bitch FTCh Setenta of Fallows. This was in the days when the HPR breeds could run in field trials against the native British breeds. This idea originated before HPR's had their own trials, where game is shot and retrieved but in the Irish Republic, there was an overlap as in 1976 I ran a pointer in Co. Offaly against a German Shorthaired Pointer. This was the last year this was permitted by the Irish Kennel Club, although the English KC had ceased to allow HPR's to run against native breeds many years before the IKC discontinued this practice.
John Nash won the event a record four times between 1966 and 1986 with FTCh Patrica of Killone, an Irish Red Setter with some white markings, in 1972 with FTCh Knockmore Red Molly, an Irish Setter I saw working as a nine year old and who Nash said was a little strange in the head, in 1978 with FTCh Clashawley Gail, a brilliant bitch in sugarbeet but not outstanding on heather, and in 1986 with FTCh Moanruad Quiver, the only dog out of the four and despite Nash's outstanding success as a breeder of Irish Setters, the only one he had bred himself.
From 1959 to the year 2000 the event was won on 18 occasions by pointers. David Reid from Ulster won in 1975 and 1981 with pointers and his daughter Heather Reid Beggs, won with an Irish Setter FTCh Innistona Gift in 1980. Another Ulsterman, Maurice Getty, won with pointers in 1979 and 1983.
English Setters have only won twice, in 1965 Mr J Slattery's FTCh Queen of the Vale won, the same year that another English Setter, Signor A. Ammanati's entry won the European Championship, or Coupe d' Europe
In the Irish Championship in 1989, John Geoghegan's FTCh Lefanta Cindy was only the second English Setter to win the event and in 1998, Mr D Byrne's Irish White and Red Setter FTCh Millie of Sugarloaf was the only representative of this ancient breed to receive the ultimate accolade.
Some 19 Irish Red Setters figure in the Roll of Honour and it is an interesting fact that an Englishman Steve Robinson, has won in 1998 with FTCh Lusca Max, and in 1999 and 2000 with FTCh Ardoon Jack, another Irish red Setter bred by Will Sloan. Sloan also bred the 1972, 1973 and 1974 Cocker Championship winner FTCh Speckle of Ardoon handled by the writer.
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1959 Mr EJ. Cunningham G.S.P.B. Setenta of
Fallows |