The hard cold facts are, absolutely not, they are not a pure Dublin reds, they may have been line bred to certain key dogs that were close to the main original key old dogs that helped and were responsible for giving birth to the name, The Dublin Red's.

I will give you my honest opinion and the feeling about today's named Dublin Red Stafford's..

Would I consider them pure? a catch 22 question really because, yes they were all bred from Stafford's, but bred from Stafford's were some were unregistered and from Stafford's that quite didn't make the grade in the show rings, that came in all shapes sizes and colours.

There are so many debates about the Dublin Red Stafford's....I have to be honest, I have read so many different articles produced over the internet about the Dublin Reds and I have to say, some of them really make my blood boil because they are so far removed from the real truth, it's just unbelievable! ... We all know that old saying.... paper doesn't refuse ink, individuals can write what ever they want to these days, and so many do, I just wish they would tell it how it really was! ...why certain individuals twist and bend the truth I will never know, personally the only reason why these individuals choose to bend the truth about the Dublin Red's is that they are either egotistical individuals who feel the need to pump up their own dogs for whatever the reason, who knows.... just a very silly way to carry on and not doing the original Stafford men and their dogs little justice.

Now getting back to today's Dublin Red's being pure... "No" there just wasn't enough of the old dogs within that lines to keep that particular line pure.... the main key dog for the Dublin Red line was "Brindle Devil" many of his pups were brindle but when he was mated to Eddie Byrnes red bitch produced a litter with a majority of the pups being red, a few of the pups from this littler were exported to the USA, these pups went down so well with the USA among the APBT breeders, Eddie Byrnes did a re-mating of the two, this litter were all red in colour but in regards to the breed standard and the showing end of things, none of these puppies made the grade and couldn't be shown because they were all over the top in size and carried more of the terrier type gene than the bull, these puppies were over the top in size and very lean, so for the Stafford fanciers Byrnes and Delaney this was a big problem because the pups couldn't be shown and they were also to big to enter a badger set.

These pups were all given away to a few local lads in Dublin city, this was just the start of the Dublin Red's, at this period in time in Dublin city just as it is today in some big cities around the world, for the youth, loitering around the street corners at night, to have a Staffy by your side was considered to be a symbol of hardness/toughness, you were even harder and considered top of your game if you owned a Staffy out of Willie Delaney's Staffie, Ch.Brindle Devil.... this was around the same time the IKC came up with the Idea to issue champion certificates for badgering, it wasn't long before every kid that owned a Staffie wanted a pup out of Brindle Devil because when your in the Stafford circle, everyone knows everyone and knew what dogs were at the top of their game... so it wasn't long before everyone wanted a pup out of Brindle Devil and you have to understand my uncle was focused on producing a combination type and gameness and to let every tom dick and harry used the dog was not going to help him reach his goal but knew in the wrong hands could do more harm to the breed and to great harm to my uncles reputation in the show ring, so my uncle had to put a few restriction on the dogs his use.

There were quite a few that was turned down on his stud services, this didn't really work to well because the people who got turned down started to seek out other Staff breeders who had a dog out of Brindle Devil and would their dogs.....so it wasn't before long my uncle would see kids with Staffs hanging around the sheriff street flats down by the railway street boxing club in the city of Dublin.

My uncle was also a trainer of a boxing club, called the railway street club and we would be in there training 3 -4 times a week, but I remember we were driving down to the club on evening and Willie saw this kid with two red Staffs, so my uncle pulled over and shouted out the window....hey kid that's a great looking dog you've got there and proceeded to say, were did you the Staffs from.... the kids shouted back, they're Delaney's reds, that was the first time my uncle had ever heard the term Red being associate to him or his dogs, it was a bitter sweet moment for him because you had all these Staffs around Dublin being called Delaney's Red's or Dublin Red's.... this really bothered my uncle because now you have Staffs all over Dublin, it didn't matter if they were 15 inches off the ground or 34 inches off the ground they were all considered Delaney's Red's or Dublin Red's and down from Brindle Devil, my uncle didn't like this at all because there were dogs being associated to him and his bloodlines which were nothing compared to what my uncle was showing or badgering with... so it was a bitter sweet situation.

So to sum it up in a nutshell.....This will give you a real good idea to the Dublin Red line and how it all came about, it's a dog that was produced from breeding from Stafford's that were all shapes and sizes with the key and main ingredient.... must be carrying the Brindle Devil or any of his sons.... one son of Brindle Devil was given to one of my uncles best friends Tony Lee, another man with a great eye for a good dog.... my uncle gave him a dog called Saint also known as Satan, the dog was just a little to tall for the show ring, so my uncle gave him to Tony Lee, this dog was used quite heavily in the finglas Dublin area as a stud dog producing many great looking game Staffs... I have a photograph of myself as a kid with Saint/Satan I will post it here as soon as I dig it out of the photo pile.

The progression of the Staff in Dublin over the years was that there were many great Staffs being produced and really all depended on what an individuals personal taste in dogs were.... if you were a person looking for a show Staffy then you would go to the fancy who were noted for showing their dogs, if you were the type of person who wanted a dog for it's gameness then you would seek out and go to the fancy who liked to fight their dogs...

I would like to end this by saying...... a majority of the Dublin Staffy people that liked to show their dogs, kept to themselves and the same for the other side of the realm of breeders who liked to fight their dogs they also kept to their own.

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Article by
Ray Delaney

Terrier Network
www.terriernetwork.com