The National Red Setter Field Trial Club maintains a registry and runs field trials for the working strain of Irish setter that was imported to the United States during the nineteenth century. The interesting history of these dogs and their registry can be found here.
But what I find interesting is what the dogs look like. Check out their hall of fame. Note the broader heads and shorter ears. They are more moderately built. They are not long-legged in the least. I could easily mistake these dogs for dark golden retrievers. Some these dogs have white marking, which appears in golden retrievers, too. Keep in mind that the original Irish setters were red and white, and that the red and white strains almost went extinct (They existed only in Northern Ireland and were saved by a Protestant minister named Noble Huston. More on the red and whites here.)
In Europe there has been an attempt to keep a dual purpose Irish setter. Again, I’m not opposed to this attempt, but my guess is that once competition gets too high in both arenas, type variances are inevitable.
Here’s a video of a Russian Irish setter from West European bloodlines. I had read somewhere that the Soviets actually maintained lines of working Irish setters that were not dissimilar to the American red setter registry lines (broad head and moderately boned and feathered). However, this dog is not one of them. It’s a dual purpose dog.
Fashion (in dog breeds) is evil.