IRR History
THE GOALS of the CHARITY
• To assess, rehabilitate and rehome all the dogs in our care to forever loving homes.
• To raise funds to allow us to continue rescuing these dogs and transporting them to the UK.
• To fully homecheck any potential forever home.
• To match each individual dog to a prospective adopter.
Giving Every Dog a Second Chance
Dogs come into our Rescue for a variety of reasons. Quite often dogs are surrendered by their owners because of changes in family circumstances. Others are abandoned and collected by Dog Wardens to be taken to the Pounds. All dogs that come into our care are examined, spayed or neutered and microchipped. Those dogs arriving from Eire or other parts of Europe are also given mandatory vaccinations and necessary legal documentation before travelling with registered dog transporters to the UK.
On arrival, they are placed in foster care for a short period. This allows the fosterer to assess the dog who may need time to settle into their new environment before their true personality fully emerges. Where possible, it is important that their interaction with children and other animals, especially cats, is fully evaluated.
This helps to ensure they are placed in the most appropriate forever home.
While our primary mission is to rescue dogs from Eire, which we actively seek through our full-time Ireland Coordinator and her team, when asked to assist in rehoming dogs from other countries in Europe, including the UK, if we have sufficient funds and foster homes available we are always willing to help a dog in need.
Between 2005 and April 2021, IRR re-homed over 1,305 dogs
The Starfish Story
Adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren Eisely (1907-1977)
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day and, so, he walked faster to catch up. As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects and throwing them into the ocean. He came closer still and called out, "Good morning, may I ask what it is that you are doing?" The young man paused, looked up, and replied, "Throwing starfish into the ocean". "I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" said the somewhat startled wise man. To this, the young man replied, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them in, they will die". Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, "But , young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along ever mile? You cannot possibly make a difference!" At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, "It made a difference for that one".
IN THE BEGINNING
Up until 2004, Sandie Bissett, one of our founding members had been rescuing Golden Retrievers single-handedly in Ireland and bringing them to the UK.
But as the volume grew it became obvious that help was needed. Having spoken with a group of like-minded Goldie lovers in the UK, it was decided to set up a UK based not-for-profit organization called Irish Retriever Rescue UK and adopt as their mission statement a “commitment to safeguarding the futures of abused, abandoned, neglected or simply unwanted Golden Retrievers”.
IRR FOUNDER MEMBERS
THE SUPPORT TEAM IN 2005
In 2005, when Irish Retriever Rescue also had the most amazing and loyal supporters without whose dedication, hard work and financial support, IRR would have never been able to exist let alone grow into the enormous rescue it is today.
About the Photos: Lynne with an attentive Lola, Steve with Gizzie and Georgie, Sandra with Jumble, who she saw into the world in 2005 as the first born of The First Surprise Puppies, and a rare pic of Andy and Val together taken at the Reunion. They fostered more than 100 dogs during their time with IRR.
THE GROWING TEAM
Charitable Status
In January 2013 Irish Retriever Rescue became a fully recognised UK registered charity rehoming over 100 unwanted Golden Retrievers and their near relatives each year.
THE TEAM (as of early 2019)
LORRAINE – Trustee and UK Coordinator
JACKIE – Trustee and Treasurer
Golden Retrievers have been part of our lives for years. But when our first Goldie, Alfie, began to deteriorate at around 13 I knew our next one would be a rescue – it was then I discovered IRR.
When Alfie went to the Bridge, our plan was to have a break before adopting again. But, 2 weeks later, on Mothers Day 2016, Flynn & Murphy joined the family.
I soon became involved with IRR’s Facebook Auction Page, Pictures & Chat page as admin and part of the fundraising team.
KATHRYN – Ireland Co-ordinator
Kathryn became involved with IRR in 2011. She has five gorgeous Golden Retrievers, Laurel, Charlie, Angel and Sadie and a Golden Retriever Cocker cross, Buddy. Charlie, Angel and Buddy are all rescues – Angel was adopted in 2011 and Buddy was adopted in 2016 from IRR. Her dogs help her with all aspects of IRR whether it be helping to home-check, raise funds or integrate new fosters. She has had rescues all her life and brings a wealth of experience – dogs are her passion, especially Goldens! Kathryn is employed in a Foreign Diplomatic Mission in Dublin.
PAULA – Rehoming Coordinator and Homecheck Coordinator
I have been brought up and lived with dogs practically all my life. These included three Goldies all living well into old age. I started to foster for IRR in November 2011 after we lost our 14-year-old Golden Retriever “William”. I have fostered lots of dogs since then and found the whole experience to be very rewarding. We quickly became “failed fosterers” and Jake now 5 years old joined Trixie our 11-year-old GSD X and Micky our 13-year-old Lurcher and is now a very much loved family member… I have recently taken on the role of Home check coordinator and hope to help get many more of these lovely dogs into forever homes.
Never to be forgotten
OUR WONDERFUL BELINDA
Trustee, Treasurer, Secretary and more
Fully active right up to the last minute possible, eventually, Belinda gave in and retired from her many and varied duties for which IRR owed her a true debt of gratitude.
Sadly, her retirement was short-lived as her health deteriorated and she, very sadly, passed away on 11th April 2019.
This website is dedicated to her memory.
2020, MOVEMENT HAD TO BE HALTED
On 30th March 2020, due to the Coronavirus health crisis and to follow the Government directives, adoptions for all our dogs had to be put on hold until travel restrictions were lifted and safe movement within the community was able to be resumed.
April 2021 – New .co.uk Website
In April 2021, Irish Retriever Rescue launched their new .co.uk website.
The new site is where you will find all the information you need to adopt or foster one of our rescue dogs, or to get involved and help out.
New dogs seeking their new home will be posted the .co.uk site as well as on the IRR Facebook page.
This website will continue to run as an archive of the history of IRR, and our Roll of Honour for dogs who have passed to Rainbow Bridge.