The English Setter Maestro…

A look at Johnny Geoghegan’s history in dog trials by Michael Murphy

When John Geoghegan first came into trials in 1981 the English setter breed was the poor relation of the gundog world. However, when Johnny Geoghegan came along that soon changed. Johnny became interested in the breed when he met Eddie Ahern who was a friend of the family. They started shooting together and Eddie had a couple of good English setters. He invited Johnny to a snipe trial they were running in the hills near where he lived. While he was there he saw two very good English setters, Eddie Ahern’s bitch Stoneview Princess and Ned Fox’s dog Glen Road. Ned Fox told Johnny that he would be breeding his bitch Roaming Beauty to Dan Scannell’s dog Roughty Lad. He booked a pup and Eddie arrived with the pup in the summer of 1980, the pup was called Ballincolly Roamer. He then bought Eddie’s bitch Stoneview Princess and also got, as a gift from Eddie, a pup out of her by Glen Road, born August 1981. This pup was named Lad of Cappoquin. He mated Stoneview Princess to a son of Ballincolly Roamer, named Lord of the Rings, and this produced Lefanta Cindy who won the Irish Championship. Cindy’s sister Lefanta Carroll produced F.T.Ch. The Queen.

FTCh Lad of Cappoquin

Johnny ran his first dog in field trials in the 1981 Puppy Derby. He was drawn against Michael Murphy and he says he got plenty of encouragement from everyone. The dog was Ballincolly Roamer. He made him up into a field trial champion in Ferns in 1982. His second champion was Lad of Cappoquin.

He has made up twenty four champions since then, a great achievement.

The dogs he nominates as his best are Lefanta Cindy, The Blue Maestro, The Queen, Miss Kate, Ballincolly Roamer and Knocksmall Moose. They all had outstanding moments. In 1986 Johnny felt that English setters needed fresh blood so with the help of the late John Nash to whom he is very grateful, he recommended Norway. Johnny imported Storeskars G Snorre and what a help he has been to the breed. He has sired twelve F.T.Champions and two puppy Derby winners to date. He was a great dog himself and became a field trial champion in one week in Galway and Monaghan with three firsts and two seconds out of the five trials that week. Johnny’s success included the Irish Championship in 1989 with Lefanta Cindy. He also owned and bred Lefanta Patsy which won the English Championship this year. He won the Irish Red Setter Puppy Derby four times as follows…

1987 Lefanta Abba (ESB).
1988 Lefanta Cindy (ESB) was second 
1991 Mighty Viking (ESD).
1996 Lefanta Tricolour (ESB)

1997 Lefanta Cranna (ESB) was second

1998 Knocksmall Moose (ESB).

Lefanta Sparky, FTCh Lefanta Tyson, Lefanta Trampas

Johnny won the 1989 Irish Championship with Lefanta Cindy was second in the Irish Championship with The Blue Maestro and Lochgorman Rings. He says his best pup was Lefanta Cindy who would hunt bog or mountain and was always excellent on game.

His favourite trials are the mountain trials especially the Derby as you get the chance to see the future for all the breeds. Johnny’s favourite club trials are Wicklow / Wexford where he has had great luck making quite a few of his dogs up there.

The men Johnny has admired most in trials were John Nash, Sean Dennehy, Bob Stakelum, Billy Bergin, sadly they have all passed on. They all had different qualities.

He remembers one morning he went to a trial in Churchtown run by the Sean Fleming. It was the second time he was going to run Storeskars G ‘Snorre and John Nash was just home from hospital after having a serious operation. They decided to run Snorre first so that John could get back home to bed. They ran Snorre in a couple of fields close to the road and John Nash went home well satisfied with what he had seen.

Johnny also got a lot of help over the years from his friends who helped with breeding, training and getting him some excellent training ground. His wife and family gave him great support over the years.
I wish Johnny the best of  luck in the future.  Johnny never brings out a bad dog, they are always fit and well trained.

In my opinion this has been his greatest year ever winning nine open stakes and one breed stake. Knocksmall Moose won six opens and one breed stake making Moose a certainty for Dog of the Year with Lefanta Cranna winning three open stakes and Lefanta Patsy which he used to own and trained, winning the English Championship. He has two good dogs coming on in Lefanta Ezar who won the Puppy Stake in Ferns and Lefanta Eva who won the Novice Stake in Kinnitty.

The English Setter Club of Ireland of which Johnny is President have to be very thankful to him for bringing the breed up to the standard it is today. Johnny, employed by Red Mills, is a great sportsman and is very popular with all the trial competitors. We do all in our power to topple him but he is still top man.

There are 44 Field Trial Championships from dogs and bitches in Johnny’s kennels. This is a list of 24 Field Trial Champions he has made up himself: 1 Ballincolly Roamer, 2 Lad of Cappoquin, 3 Miss Katie, 4 Cosmic Flight, 5 Lefanta April, 6 Storeskars G’Snorre, 7 Lefanta Cindy, 8 The Blue Maestro, 9 The Queen, 10 Knocksmall Blue Boy, 11 Mighty Viking, 12 Dark Viking, 13 Lefanta Heidi, 14 Lochgorman Albin, 15 Lochgorman Rings, 16 Lefanta Specky, 17 Lefanta Pip, 18 Lefanta Patsy, 19 Lefanta Page, 20 Lefanta Tyson, 21 Lefanta Tricolour, 22 Lefanta Snorre, 23 Lefanta Cranna and 24 Knocksmall Moose.

 Irish Shooters’ Digest – January 2000

Five Lefanta Champions