I’M WRITING this short story to try and help promote pigeon racing in Ireland.
My name is John O’Brien and I’m a 31-year-old pigeon fancier living on the Southside.
I started racing pigeons three years ago and I’m really excited going into my fourth year.
I got into pigeons after watching a great documentary on RTE called ‘Flights of Fancy’, about Dublin pigeon men in the 1980s.
As a proud Southside Dubliner I loved it and I started looking up pigeon racing in Dublin. I soon found out that lots of people around me had pigeons.
I had discovered what had been a hidden world to me and I was intrigued.
I got talking to some local pigeon men and they gave me a few basic tips. I gradually built up a small loft and started collecting my first birds. I learned slowly, from breeding and training to eventually racing my pigeons and very soon I was hooked.
I found I had a passion for it. It was a similar sensation to when you see a football fan screaming when his team scores a goal. Well, that’s the same feeling I get when I see my pigeon finally landing on the loft’s landing board after a 20- mile race. It’s the same for me, utter joy!
But, sadly pigeon racing is slowly diminishing every year. I think it’s down to there being very little awareness of the sport, so people are not talking about it.
Also, there are many elderly fanciers retiring from racing as well and in my club we are down 25 fanciers this year.
Pigeon racing is run by the Irish South Road Federation or ISRF for short. They were established in 1968 and today have around 800 members across 30 clubs from Wicklow up as far as Monaghan.
There are around 3,000 fanciers in Ireland’s various federations and organisations and we are all part of the Irish Homing Union (IHU) which races most weeks, from mid April to mid September.
Inland races range from 60 to 200 miles and could have between 8,000 and 14,000 birds taking part. There are also races from Wales and France that can range from between 200 and more than 500 miles, which is quiet amazing to me.
At the AGM a few weeks ago it was decided that promotion of the sport was needed to try and encourage more people to join it.
I have taken on this task with help from the federation’s secretary, Michael Roche and president, Henry Byrne.
My plan is to contact local media like newspapers and radio as well as RTE. I also intend setting up a social media account on Facebook. I will contact men’s sheds groups and local women’s groups as the sport is dominated by men, while I’ll also contact local teen groups like the YMCA and other youth groups or associations. I’m also hoping all members will take an active role in positively promoting the sport in their local area as well.
I’m passionate about this beautiful sport and I’m going to do my best to try and encourage as many people as possible to start keeping racing pigeons. I’m hopeful that more people will get out of it what I have.
This is an amazing sport and is just as interesting and exciting as dog racing and horse racing but it gets far less coverage
I’m hoping other media outlets will start noticing how amazing these birds really are.
If you are interested in keeping pigeons here are some handy sites to help point you in the right direction. See www.Irishhomingunion.com www.isrf.com www.pigeonlink.com
There will be a Q & A with some of the top professionals in the pigeon racing sport in Sarsfield Racing Pigeon & Sports Club on Lally Road on March 12 from 5pm. All queries to Thomas Daniel on 0857211053 or Kevin Barry on 0864120651.
