Tom Fox Meets Sean Kearney, Kelmarsky Gundogs
Irish Kennel Club Retriever of the Year 2020
S
ean Kearney owns, runs and breeds Labrador Retrievers for competition, shooting and family dogs. His passion for dogs is certainly evident and he attributes this to his late father, also called Sean, who firstly introduced him to fishing, coursing and ferrets at the tender age of 6 years. From that day onwards, Sean has always had a dog and, as they say, the rest is history. His first dog was a lurcher (Rosie) who he took pups off alongside working his terriers and ferrets too. His passion for the outdoors got stronger and stronger, spending all spare time out with his hunting dogs and ferrets. Sean got his first Labrador Retriever
as a pup, Timpany Forest Fox ‘Broc’ as a shooting dog. One day, while enjoying working Broc he came across some men training their dogs for field trials and there and then he decided to extend his training discipline with Broc. Soon, Broc got him started winning, but as everyone knows, when you start training for trials the addition of more dogs is par for the course. Sean had a real hunger for trials by now and got his own Kennel Club prefix as he wanted to try to breed some winners too. In due course this prefix became known worldwide. As I mentioned success came with FTW Timpany Forest Fox ‘Broc’, then FTW Shimnavale Firefly of Kelmarsky ‘Fly,’
OFTW Emmanygan Vienna Of Kelmarsky ‘Pip’, OFTW Kelmarsky Bugatti (home bred) FTW Astraglen Pearl Scout), FTCH Kelmarsky Crow ‘Crow,’ who became the Irish Kennel Club Retriever of the Year 2020, and OFTW Klemarsky Ash, known as ‘Ash.’ Sean would say that FTCH Kelmarsky Crow is a special dog. He has superb natural ability, drive, style, lovely temperament, strong and with superb game finding ability. Running Crow was a big challenge that Sean thrived on, but achieving FTCH status and also being awarded Irish Retriever of the Year 2020 was simply the icing in the cake for Sean.
A typical picture of Sean Kearney enjoying some training with his Labradors. Irish Country Sports and Country Life Spring/Summer 2021
91
