Irish Game Fairs

[fionn 21]

the time we were trying to get the irish terrier federation up and running ye refuse point blank for us to run the show we put up an information stall at the fair to promote terrier work the spot we were giving was way off beating track and i have proof this took place as shamus will remenber we moved our banner to the side of show ring as one of our members won the show have picture to prove it he reseive a trophy worth 7pound it was three to enter a dog on day now you come out and said you or shamus didnt support any other shows in the south that said it all happy xmas

Edited December 23, 2009 by fionn

[AlbertJ 569]

the time we were trying to get the irish terrier federation up and running ye refuse point blank for us to run the show we put up an information stall at the fair to promote terrier work the spot we were giving was way off beating track and i have proof this took place as shamus will remenber we moved our banner to the side of show ring as one of our members won the show have picture to prove it he reseive a trophy worth 7pound it was three to enter a dog on day now you come out and said you or shamus didnt support any other shows in the south that said it all happy xmas

 

 

Fionn,

 

Thanks for your response and festive good wishes. Once again I feel I have to correct you. At no time was I contacted or did I communicate with anyone regarding the Irish Terrier Federation. I certainly do not recall you or anyone else asking me could they run the show. You may be confusing our organisation with that of Margaret Edgill who ran shows at Birr. I have only been involved in Birr since 2007.

 

Once again I must correct you over your trophy claim. Since I have been involved with terrier & lurcher shows in spite of the difficulty in attracting outside sponsorship we have always ensured that the top dogs get decent prizes and prize money. This year there was over £1500 in prizes at Shanes Castle and we also upped the prize money at Birr. What you claim happened must have been under the "previous management".

 

In fact I was keen to try to improve both prize structures this year and indeed that is where I came into this discussion.

 

As I said I am always happy to discuss ideas, suggestions and constructive criticism in this forum, by email of by phone.

 

AlbertJ

[kevin em 342]

sorry if I came across anti IM NOT one bit anti northern i have been to birr the last three years as its a good family day out but the standard of working terriers on show is very poor i go to alot of shows all over Ireland and the UK and I can honestly say that birr is the worst.Could ye not let some other club or person have a go a running it for one year?

 

 

Flash,

 

Thanks for your response. See my replies to Kevin and Fionn.

 

Best wishes for Xmas and 2010,

 

AlbertJ

maybe you shouldn mention garry middleton when you refer to workin terrier shows as any level headed lads on here no he doesn work his dogs i know you get the dreamers on this site who say he does but in the real world we know he doesn and its not just your show im on about ballinlough was no better a woman judgin the show now im not sexest but by her own admission does not work terriers so how the hell can she be judging a workin terrier show not that it will make any difference to me as im not intending on going to any of those big shows in the comin years atb happy xmas and good luck to all genuine digging lads

[fionn 21]

the time we were trying to get the irish terrier federation up and running ye refuse point blank for us to run the show we put up an information stall at the fair to promote terrier work the spot we were giving was way off beating track and i have proof this took place as shamus will remenber we moved our banner to the side of show ring as one of our members won the show have picture to prove it he reseive a trophy worth 7pound it was three to enter a dog on day now you come out and said you or shamus didnt support any other shows in the south that said it all happy xmas

 

 

Fionn,

 

Thanks for your response and festive good wishes. Once again I feel I have to correct you. At no time was I contacted or did I communicate with anyone regarding the Irish Terrier Federation. I certainly do not recall you or anyone else asking me could they run the show. You may be confusing our organisation with that of Margaret Edgill who ran shows at Birr. I have only been involved in Birr since 2007.

 

Once again I must correct you over your trophy claim. Since I have been involved with terrier & lurcher shows in spite of the difficulty in attracting outside sponsorship we have always ensured that the top dogs get decent prizes and prize money. This year there was over £1500 in prizes at Shanes Castle and we also upped the prize money at Birr. What you claim happened must have been under the "previous management".

 

In fact I was keen to try to improve both prize structures this year and indeed that is where I came into this discussion.

 

As I said I am always happy to discuss ideas, suggestions and constructive criticism in this forum, by email of by phone.

 

it was before 2007 indeed but mid antrim were running the terrier show at the time and it soured a lot of people i personally havnt shown a dog since and wont under them

[AlbertJ 569]

the time we were trying to get the irish terrier federation up and running ye refuse point blank for us to run the show we put up an information stall at the fair to promote terrier work the spot we were giving was way off beating track and i have proof this took place as shamus will remenber we moved our banner to the side of show ring as one of our members won the show have picture to prove it he reseive a trophy worth 7pound it was three to enter a dog on day now you come out and said you or shamus didnt support any other shows in the south that said it all happy xmas

 

 

Fionn,

 

Thanks for your response and festive good wishes. Once again I feel I have to correct you. At no time was I contacted or did I communicate with anyone regarding the Irish Terrier Federation. I certainly do not recall you or anyone else asking me could they run the show. You may be confusing our organisation with that of Margaret Edgill who ran shows at Birr. I have only been involved in Birr since 2007.

 

Once again I must correct you over your trophy claim. Since I have been involved with terrier & lurcher shows in spite of the difficulty in attracting outside sponsorship we have always ensured that the top dogs get decent prizes and prize money. This year there was over £1500 in prizes at Shanes Castle and we also upped the prize money at Birr. What you claim happened must have been under the "previous management".

 

In fact I was keen to try to improve both prize structures this year and indeed that is where I came into this discussion.

 

As I said I am always happy to discuss ideas, suggestions and constructive criticism in this forum, by email of by phone.

 

it was before 2007 indeed but mid antrim were running the terrier show at the time and it soured a lot of people i personally havnt shown a dog since and wont under them

 

 

Fionn,

 

Thanks for responding and thanks for admitting it WAS NOT ME that the the fledgling terrier federation contacted about the show. Before my time at Birr the Mid Antrim Club did run the show at Birr for Margaret Edgill. I don't know what her commitment to them for prizes and rosettes was, but I know Seamus has worked hard with me and others to improve the prize structure at both Northern and Southern Shows.

 

I am personally committed to improving the prizes; working with Mid Antrim and the T&L fraternity to get fair and knowledgeable judges and responding to constructive criticism of how the shows could be improved. I am still waiting for positive suggestions rather than unspecified criticism of the organisers.

 

AND as I have said I am always willing to listen to requests for sponsorship of any country sports event. Although I personally have not kept terriers and lurchers as my interest was/is in training GSDs for man work; working golden retrievers for tests and trials and gordon setters for game shooting. However my family kept border terriers and Irish Water Spaniels and I retain an interest and fondness for these breeds and I have a real commitment to having good quality Terrier & Lurcher events and displays at our Fairs.

 

I have been involved in training, showing and judging dogs for over 50 years. In 2009 judging real working gundogs in special show classes at Glenarm and golden retrievers at an IKC championship Show. The former was a novel experience as field trial guys who beat and pick up on the estate turned out and my decisions were received in a truly sporting spirit. The latter was altogether more serious and obviously at a Championship show like this only the two Green Star winners are really happy. This was a pure beauty contest because none of the dogs were actual workers but I still was looking for a well constructed dog in terms of angulation and balance; a free moving and workmanlike dog in good condition and one that looked as if it could work.

 

The first event I was able to take a more lenient view of the breed standards and took into account more the condition and movement of the dog in an attempt to guage POTENTIAL working ability.

 

I trust you can see parallels with the working terrier shows. In my mind more difficult to judge because of a lack of clearly defined and published breed standards but equally difficult to judge in terms of guaging POTENTIAL working ability. Guys who actually work their dogs might gripe about non working dogs being put up but shows whether for working gundogs or working terriers can only ever be beauty contests with potential ability rather than actual ability being judged.

 

In gundogs we are fortunate to have tests and trials to test the working ability and in fact that is what I choose to do. As a former chairman, now president of the Golden Retriever Club, I do take part in all their acivities and do show my dogs in club shows joking that they are seeing real golden retrievers i.e dogs that are golden in colour not cream and real retrievers. Sometimes my dogs have done surprisingly well under older style judges ( who may have worked their dogs a little in the past) but more often than not they do not do well under more show orientated judges. However I expect this from a beauty contest, I enjoy the day out, the challenge of meeting beauty only dogs, and I do not criticise the judge, or the event organisers.

 

We try to get knowledgable working terrier & lurcher judges for our Fairs and we would welcome ideas for events/tests analagous to the gundog working tests where working terriers could be tested on ability. It shouldn't be beyond the ingenuity of the terrier and lurcher fraternity to come up with ideas for this after all gundog tests were very much a novelty until we popularised them with our first fairs in 1979. Now there is a retriever test virtually every w/e from March to September.

 

So Fionn, Kevin and Flash lets have your positive ideas on promoting the working terrier & lurcher at the Fairs and if you are running an event please feel free to contact me for sponsorship.

 

Regards,

 

AlbertJ

[fionn 21]

the time we were trying to get the irish terrier federation up and running ye refuse point blank for us to run the show we put up an information stall at the fair to promote terrier work the spot we were giving was way off beating track and i have proof this took place as shamus will remenber we moved our banner to the side of show ring as one of our members won the show have picture to prove it he reseive a trophy worth 7pound it was three to enter a dog on day now you come out and said you or shamus didnt support any other shows in the south that said it all happy xmas

 

 

Fionn,

 

Thanks for your response and festive good wishes. Once again I feel I have to correct you. At no time was I contacted or did I communicate with anyone regarding the Irish Terrier Federation. I certainly do not recall you or anyone else asking me could they run the show. You may be confusing our organisation with that of Margaret Edgill who ran shows at Birr. I have only been involved in Birr since 2007.

 

Once again I must correct you over your trophy claim. Since I have been involved with terrier & lurcher shows in spite of the difficulty in attracting outside sponsorship we have always ensured that the top dogs get decent prizes and prize money. This year there was over £1500 in prizes at Shanes Castle and we also upped the prize money at Birr. What you claim happened must have been under the "previous management".

 

In fact I was keen to try to improve both prize structures this year and indeed that is where I came into this discussion.

 

As I said I am always happy to discuss ideas, suggestions and constructive criticism in this forum, by email of by phone.

 

it was before 2007 indeed but mid antrim were running the terrier show at the time and it soured a lot of people i personally havnt shown a dog since and wont under them

 

 

Fionn,

 

Thanks for responding and thanks for admitting it WAS NOT ME that the the fledgling terrier federation contacted about the show. Before my time at Birr the Mid Antrim Club did run the show at Birr for Margaret Edgill. I don't know what her commitment to them for prizes and rosettes was, but I know Seamus has worked hard with me and others to improve the prize structure at both Northern and Southern Shows.

 

I am personally committed to improving the prizes; working with Mid Antrim and the T&L fraternity to get fair and knowledgeable judges and responding to constructive criticism of how the shows could be improved. I am still waiting for positive suggestions rather than unspecified criticism of the organisers.

 

AND as I have said I am always willing to listen to requests for sponsorship of any country sports event. Although I personally have not kept terriers and lurchers as my interest was/is in training GSDs for man work; working golden retrievers for tests and trials and gordon setters for game shooting. However my family kept border terriers and Irish Water Spaniels and I retain an interest and fondness for these breeds and I have a real commitment to having good quality Terrier & Lurcher events and displays at our Fairs.

 

I have been involved in training, showing and judging dogs for over 50 years. In 2009 judging real working gundogs in special show classes at Glenarm and golden retrievers at an IKC championship Show. The former was a novel experience as field trial guys who beat and pick up on the estate turned out and my decisions were received in a truly sporting spirit. The latter was altogether more serious and obviously at a Championship show like this only the two Green Star winners are really happy. This was a pure beauty contest because none of the dogs were actual workers but I still was looking for a well constructed dog in terms of angulation and balance; a free moving and workmanlike dog in good condition and one that looked as if it could work.

 

The first event I was able to take a more lenient view of the breed standards and took into account more the condition and movement of the dog in an attempt to guage POTENTIAL working ability.

 

I trust you can see parallels with the working terrier shows. In my mind more difficult to judge because of a lack of clearly defined and published breed standards but equally difficult to judge in terms of guaging POTENTIAL working ability. Guys who actually work their dogs might gripe about non working dogs being put up but shows whether for working gundogs or working terriers can only ever be beauty contests with potential ability rather than actual ability being judged.

 

In gundogs we are fortunate to have tests and trials to test the working ability and in fact that is what I choose to do. As a former chairman, now president of the Golden Retriever Club, I do take part in all their acivities and do show my dogs in club shows joking that they are seeing real golden retrievers i.e dogs that are golden in colour not cream and real retrievers. Sometimes my dogs have done surprisingly well under older style judges ( who may have worked their dogs a little in the past) but more often than not they do not do well under more show orientated judges. However I expect this from a beauty contest, I enjoy the day out, the challenge of meeting beauty only dogs, and I do not criticise the judge, or the event organisers.

 

We try to get knowledgable working terrier & lurcher judges for our Fairs and we would welcome ideas for events/tests analagous to the gundog working tests where working terriers could be tested on ability. It shouldn't be beyond the ingenuity of the terrier and lurcher fraternity to come up with ideas for this after all gundog tests were very much a novelty until we popularised them with our first fairs in 1979. Now there is a retriever test virtually every w/e from March to September.

 

So Fionn, Kevin and Flash lets have your positive ideas on promoting the working terrier & lurcher at the Fairs and if you are running an event please feel free to contact me for sponsorship.

 

Regards,

 

AlbertJ

we talk again

Edited December 25, 2009 by fionn

[Irish Lurcher 1,013]

Think the lad deserves a chance, dont go to the shows myself, but might just tag along this year to see what all the fuss is about, Fiona you seen to be a determand woman and fair play to you, so Albert what you say to the irish terrier federation having a say in the runing of that section???

 

Its an Irish show and they are The Irish Terrih Federation.

[AlbertJ 569]

Think the lad deserves a chance, dont go to the shows myself, but might just tag along this year to see what all the fuss is about, Fiona you seen to be a determand woman and fair play to you, so Albert what you say to the irish terrier federation having a say in the runing of that section???

 

Its an Irish show and they are The Irish Terrih Federation.

 

 

Thanks for your post. I agree it is an Irish Show and an Irish Club that currently runs it. At Birr just as at Ballinlough the terrier & lurcher sections of the show are run by experienced Northern Clubs. as an overall event organiser it is important for us to have experienced and knowledgeable clubs/organisation running individual events. With a huge public audience these are not the events to have inexperienced people " having a go."

 

As I stressed earlier no one from the Irish Terrier Federation has ever spoken to ME about involvement in our events. As Fionn has admitted they spoke to someone else from the previous event held at Birr Birr prior to our involvement in a new event there.

 

But I have to admit that before I would contemplate radically changing the format or organisers of the largest terrier & lurcher shows in Ireland including the All Ireland T&L championship coming into its 22nd year, I would have to see what this Federation (if it actually exists) could do and/or has done in terns of running successful events.

 

All I have had so far are a small number of unspecfified complaints about the current organisers and absolutely no positive suggestions for improving the existing organisation and events.

 

I have said I will consider any approaches from the "Irish Terrier Federation" or any bona fide organisation for sponsorship for their shows and would be happy to try to fit in a visit to see their organisation at work.

 

AlbertJ

[fionn 21]

the federation folded years ago pity we didnt get surport we needed at the time all we ask is for you and others mid antrim to surport the south shows i go to most so let me know how many ye surported before yer show keep in touch as ill be watching as will others i dont want to give ye bad press the ball is in your court happy new year

[CarraghsGem 92]

...

Edited July 19, 2010 by CarraghsGem

[Foxgun Tom 75]

hi, i would like to know when and where irish game fairs/working terrier/lurcher shows are on for 2010

i know i havent really introduced myself i plan to get around to that later, suffice to say i have a pure nuttal patterdale dog, a border terrierxgodknowswhat bitchpup, a parson russel and a bull lurcher and ferrets (all working) im based near castlerea co. roscommon my name is gemma, you may have seen me at a couple of fairs including birr last year!

 

if anyone can help feel free to pm me or txt me on 0862115564

 

Hi Gemma I see this is your first post and welcome aboard Just one wee point it might not be a good idea to post telephone no's to complete strangers on the forum

 

All the best

 

Tom

[AlbertJ 569]

hi, i would like to know when and where irish game fairs/working terrier/lurcher shows are on for 2010

i know i havent really introduced myself i plan to get around to that later, suffice to say i have a pure nuttal patterdale dog, a border terrierxgodknowswhat bitchpup, a parson russel and a bull lurcher and ferrets (all working) im based near castlerea co. roscommon my name is gemma, you may have seen me at a couple of fairs including birr last year!

 

if anyone can help feel free to pm me or txt me on 0862115564

 

The All Ireland Terrier & Lurcher Championships take place at The Irish Game Fair at Shanes Castle, Antrim 26th/27th June 2010. Racing Saturday and Show Sunday.

 

The ROI Terrier & Lurcher Championships take place at the Irish Game & Country Fair, Birr Castle, Co Offaly on the 28th & 29th August 2010. Again Racing Saturday and Show Sunday.

 

AlberJ

[Johnny85 50]

The Rockview Harriers Annual Terrier, Lurcher and Hound Show will take place on Sunday May 2nd 2010 at Sevenhouses Coursing Ground, Kilkenny (Same as last few years). Any questions please pm me. More details to follow nearer the time.

[AlbertJ 569]

The Rockview Harriers Annual Terrier, Lurcher and Hound Show will take place on Sunday May 2nd 2010 at Sevenhouses Coursing Ground, Kilkenny (Same as last few years). Any questions please pm me. More details to follow nearer the time.

 

Jonny,

 

Tried to respond a couple of times to your message without success. Can you email me on irishcountrylifestyle@btinternet.com