I always kept English setters for rough shooting but when I first became involved with Trials I decided to make them my dog of choice, although I do appreciate good dogs from the other breeds and have always enjoyed running a good Irish Red Setter.

I had my first success in my local Field Trial with a dog called Louis.  He came from the old lines of Irish English Setters with links to King of the Dandies.

I saw a photograph of Johnny Geoghegan on the cover of the Irish Shooters Digest pictures with his newly imported Norwegian dog Storeskars G’Snorre in the late 1980s.  I made contact with Johnny, was invited to meet him at the Galway Trials and when I saw the quality of the animals he was running I knew what I wanted to do and the rest as they say is history.

I acquired a son of G’Snorre shortly afterwards – a pup bred by Enda Craig from Moville, Co Donegal who was to become my first FTCh Ardvalley Flight.

From then on I knew I was on the right track and you can read about the rest of the dogs on these pages.