THE IRISH RED setter is so often seen in advertisements, in the company of elegant models promoting everything from luxury estate cars to tinned dog food, that we could almost be forgiven for losing sight of the breed's origins as a practical working gundog. Its natural good looks, racy action and glossy mahogany coat have inevitably caught the eye of those to whom appearances are of most importance, its gentle and gregarious disposition have made it a popular family pet, too, and the consequence has been the evolution of two distinct types of Irish setter, the flashy, well-feathered show-bred creature of prosperous suburbia and the fast, bold-galloping working setter of the moors and bogs.

My first experience of working setters was when, as a small boy fishing a mountain lough in Co Donegal, I caught sight of a dogging party. Three figures came slowly across the mountain ; side while before them two blurs of chestnut-red raced back and forth through the heather. They covered the group effortlessly at a steady loping gallop, criss-crossing on a beat of about 300 yards. One dog turned and swung back across the wind, suddenly freezing and half crouching on his belly. His companion halted and backed, both dogs quite still as the two guns walked forward about 10 yards to each side of the setting dog. A click of the handler's fingers unfroze the setter which roaded in at a fast walk, flushing a single grouse about 15 yards in front. A single shot tumbled it into the heather and both dogs stayed dropped while a black labrador, till then unnoticed at the handler's heels, went out to retrieve it.

Colin McKelvie with Will

To a small boy it appeared almost magical, like one of those table-mat shooting prints come to life, and years of training and shooting over Irish setters has done nothing to diminish that thrill.

The driving of grouse and partridges in Great Britain has deprived the pointing and setting breeds of much of their work, although there have always been enthusiasts like the late Lord Rank who maintained a splendid partridge-dogging estate at Sutton Scotney. But in the sister island these breeds, and especially the Irish setter, remain the choice of many sports- men. Game is often thin on the ground in Ireland, and it is then that a fast-moving, wide-quartering dog is the only effective way to make a good bag. Open mountain land is interspersed with small fields and clumps of thick cover, and the Irish setter's willingness to face thick cover makes him idea! for this mixed habitat. Where a pointer would quickly become a mass of bleeding cuts, the setter is protected by a thicker skin and coat, and many positively enjoy cover and wili work it as effectively as any springer.

The ways of a shooting man's setter are not always quite orthodox from the field trial point of view. Working setters on pheasants in small, rushy fields, for example, will slow them down and often result in "stickiness", and it is not unusual to find setters which retrieve - something frowned on by the purist trialler but of great practical use to the shooting man. Setters are adaptable and intelligent, and one noted field trial judge remarked to me that an Irish setter is potentially the ideal poacher's dog! He can be trained to do anything that is required of a gundog, and his inconspicuous colouring will not give him away.

But the Irish setter's great strength, given the right ground, is grouse. In spring, as the days lengthen and the grouse pair off in the heather, a few of us meet on Sundays to take out our setters for their pre-trials training. Young ones, preparing for the puppy stakes, and older hands in need of a refresher course are taken to the moors and we begin the annual business of trying to ensure that they cover the ground, find the birds, and perhaps catch the judges' eye!

Grouse are not at all common in Ireland these days, but for the trial handler this otherwise unfortunate state of affairs brings one major benefit, for any Irish-trained dog will have had to learn to run if he is to find birds. The Irish setter is a natural galloper with an easy, well sprung action and a good one will have a wide and free quartering style - ideal for game-finding on sparsely stocked ground and highly effective where game is more plentiful.

Irish setters and their handlers have always enjoyed a good measure of success in trials, and dogs tike those of the Moanruad strain and the almost legendary Ballymac Eagle have a place in most working setters' pedigrees. Among handlers past and present, men like John Nash, the Rev Alfred O'Connor, Billy Hosick, Bertie Law and the great Jack Stewart (to name only a few) have proved themselves a force to be reckoned with.

By summer trials time dogs and handlers will be fighting fit. Trialling, especially the English and Scottish circuits, is a demanding business for man and dog, and by the Twelfth they will either be super-fit or in a state of total collapse! If the former, they will be part of the annual pilgrimage to lodges and hotels throughoul Scotland and northern England, to dog for par ties of sportsmen who still enjoy this traditional style of shooting.

Irish dogs and handlers are increasingly in demand, especially during the first fortnight of the season, when birds will lie well to the dogs. Biggish bags can be made on good ground, and marginal land will often yield a fair return to setters when walking-up would probably not be worth the effort. Occasionally dog teams are used on moors which are traditionally driving-only areas, perhaps in years of low numbers, and there is no doubt that shooting can be highly selective over setters, if the guns know their business. I have watched keepers on driver moors who have seen setters in action for the first time, and their reactions were a mixture of admiration and consternation at the potentially deadly way in which dogging can swell the bag.

Afficionados of the red dogs are to be found at all levels, and I have seen happy parties of doggers which include European royalty and aristocracy, British businessmen, transatlantic tycoons, Continental sportsmen schoolmasters, farmers and schoolboys. Many book their teams of Irishmen - two- and four legged - from year to year, to ensure another season of traditional and aesthetically pleasing sport with these racing red streaks in the heather. It's a world away from the regimented squads of beaters and the heat and noise of battle in the butts which is the better known face of grouse shooting. Driving remains the "grand style" of course, but for sheer charm and fun give me a day with the red fellows.

From an article that appeared in "Shooting Times & Country Magazine" September 1981 by Colin McKelvie