5th December 2025

For those of you busy filling in dates etc for your 2026 Show Calendar, please, make the effort and see if you can include this very special visit in May next year

All Ireland Collie & Sheepdog Society will be celebrating a very special Anniversary next year, so here, with grateful thanks to Paul Battigan, is a summary and taster of part of their history

THE IRISH CONNECTION

THE PLACE

The Manor house at the Shirley Estate, Lough Fea, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, Ireland. Here once stretched lands of some 26,386 acres, “gifted” in 1575 by Queen Elizabeth 1 to one Walter Devereaux, the common ancestor to the Shirley and Bath family.  Walter’s son Robert Deveraux 2nd Earl of Essex would become Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under the reign of Elisabeth. In 1646 the lands were divided between the Essex’s and Shirley family. The house at Lough Fea was constructed in 1826.  Evelyn Philip Shirley, 1812-1882 famous antiquarian, member of Parliament for Monaghan , High Sheriff of Monaghan and Warwickshire was the father of  Mr Sewallis Evelyn Shirley (1844—1904), who then  just 29 years of age in 1873  was the instigator of a proposal to establish a controlling body to oversee the proceedings of the emerging show societies following the first dog show in June of 1859, and thus the Kennel club, latterly the Royal Kennel Club came into being in April 1873 with Mr Shirley as its chairman.  It is this gentleman who was also the owner of TREFOIL.  Today the estate as Lough Fea is of some 1000 acres in total and is currently in the ownership of our host for our visit in May 2026 - Mr Phillip Shirley 34th Lord of the Manor and himself great grandson of Trefoils Breeder.

THE DOG

With the aid of the Kennel club records and especially with the assistance of Major John Shirley (father to the current owner and Grandson of Trefoils breeder) the late Ms. Iris Coombes (Tilehouse) was able to research the Trefoil story and confirm the special Irish Connection to the history of our breed. In January of 1873 there took place at Lough Fea a mating by Mr Shirleys stockman/shepherd Mr Smith. Sire of this litter was Mr Smiths “TWIG” (a small black and tan) whose tail mail Irish lineage extends through “OLD TWIG” to Mr Glasbys “SHAMROCK” born 1870, to Mr McCall’s SHEP.   Dam of TREFOIL was Mr Glasbys tricolour BESS (also his paternal Gr. Gr. Grandmother). And from this litter born on 19 March 1873 there came a dog registered as TREFOIL, meaning 3 leaf, like the Shamrock and born just two days after our National Feast Day of St. Patricks Day, thus a particularly Irish name for a particularly Irish dog. At Lough Fea our invitation extends to the grounds of the Pet Cemetery, and it is therefore quite likely that the ancestors of TREFOIL are to be found here. TREFOIL himself was both a working dog and a show exhibit and fortune favoured him with his move to Mr Shirleys estate in England where he would have the opportunity to prove himself as a stud dog. It is via his well-known son Ch Charlemagne born in 1879 that we had established a dominant male lineage onwards to SEFTON, CH METCHLEY WONDER AND CH CHRISTOPHER. It is estimated that every registered Rough Collie the world over can trace its tail male lineage, sire to sire back to this Irish line. An average Rough Collie in the ring today will be approximately 48-50 generations down from Trefoil on that top line of the pedigree but of course countless threads through the extended pedigree of each will lead back to him, virtually all roads then lead back to this dog and to this place. Many other breeds may well have their own version of a TREFOIL but not many a place inextricably linked to a pilar of the breed let alone a place privately owned but accessed by invitation of the ALL IRELAND COLLIE & SHEEPDOG SOCIETY with kind permission of the Shirley family for the second time.

THE INVITATION

For the AICSS, despite all the decades which have passed, this dog, this place, remains symbolic of the ties that bind us, reminds us just how connected we remain and acknowledges our enduring capacity to on occasion, leave aside competition and gather as one team.     

Many of you will have previously taken the opportunity to visit the offices & library of The Royal Kennel Club in Clarges Street London. In May you will have the opportunity to also visit the actual private residence of its first Chairman and if you so wish to, take along your own Rough Collie, step back in time 153 years to 1873 and beyond and have those very dogs literally walk in the footsteps of their ancestors.

As 2025 draws to a close, To mark the Centenary of the AICSS, founded 1926 - Join us in Ireland. May 9/10/11 2026.

Contact any officer/committee member for more details.    

Carole Smedley
(Antoc)

email: ca.antoc@btinternet.com