FLYING INTO THE NORTH WEST OF IRELAND
by Billy Knox
Part 4
MARTIN HEALY
Many fanciers set their stalls out with one particular type of racing in mind. Some prefer the shorter or inland races, while for others it is channel or long distance races that is their ultimate goal. The passion in the North West has long been for the latter, with of course the biggest of all these being France. It has to be said, there is something magical about clocking from France let alone winning and, although many have tried over the years, only a small number ever succeed.
Martin's blue cock. 3rd Open last year.
Over the years there have been many outstanding pigeon men and many fantastic pigeons that have put up some unbelievable performances both from the channel and from France. Performances, that a lot of people have forgotten about and performances that many of today’s fanciers wouldn’t remember, or perhaps know about. Fanciers with multiple channel wins and multiple French wins who have set the standards that many fanciers today are still trying to emulate.
We will take a look back over the next few weeks at some of these men and just what they achieved. The record makers and the record breakers of the past and the present, and we will bring you up to date with today’s winners as the local clubs have their annual prize givings and presentation nights.
Old Kenny Hogg Cock - 132nd Open.
A man with one foot in the past but the other firmly in the present is Martin Healy. Flying as P&M Healy, Martin, with his father Paddy who passed away ten years ago, became only the second of Derry’s illustrious Open winners. Martin is a member the Maiden City RPS, which is probably the most competitive club in the North West at present. From 1976 when Hugh McGowan made history as our first open winner, we jump forward fifteen years to 1991 when Martin wrote the next chapter.
Martin, it must be said, is well known throughout the North West and beyond as one of the most successful French flyers of recent times. Renowned as a distance flyer, but able to mix it with the sprinters when he wants to, Martin is a man who just enjoys his pigeons and the banter that goes with it. He is also known for his generosity and would go out of his way to help to help any man if he could (he also like a bit of wheeling and dealing, knows how to buy and sell a pigeon and his Grim Reaper tag is not always justified).
Red cock. Flew France last year and a big hope for this season.
Because of work commitments, Martin concentrates on channel racing with a particular emphasis on the French racing. He does not have the time for racing inland as he feels he cannot get his birds properly prepared as they do not get the required training. He will still send if he has a weekend off and in fact took a 1st Section and 3rd Open position from Tullamore last year. One fact about Martin that surprised me was that the first time he actually tried France was only back in 2003.
Martin’s Open win came from Arklow back in 1991. The bird, a yearling cock, was up against 1581 members with 23,135 birds competing. And, as we have said previously, to win at all to here be it club or section, is an achievement in itself, but an Open winner, what a fly. Again we must remember the size of the sections we were racing against back then. Anyway, the winner was a yearling cheq cock and was pure Grondelaer. It had previously won 4 x 1sts at club level including the Derby from Skibbereen. In total, the cock won five races. The mother of the cock was off a 2nd National Bourges winner of Verhoot and Grondelaer origins. One sister of the cock also had multiple first prizes while another went on to fly France for John McLaughlin. The Open winner was eventually sold to the Sandy hill Stud in Dublin for what Martin calls an undisclosed sum. (Paddy never told him how much, is what he means.)
Blue cock. Son of the Blue Pair. He bred a 3rd Open last year.
As I have said, I was surprised to find that Martin had never flown France before 2003. As he says himself, his father had never tried it, so he thought he would give it a go himself. And as we have all found out in the intervening years, he has excelled at the distance.
Blue hen. Another French bird last year.
The French experience started to take shape in 2001, when Martin sent for some stock from Kenny Hogg of Hesketh Bank in Lancashire. In 2002 he put his Hogg late-breds across the Channel to see what they were made of. With late breds flying fourteen hours on the wing from Bude, and a late bred hen carrying ten nest flights flying Penzance, Martin knew these birds would do the business. So in 2003 the French dream started to take shape when the Hogg’s made it across. Martin won in 2004 timing a yearling cock at 6.40pm on the day and amazingly, he timed three more the next morning to take 1st club and 3rd, 6th and 7th Section. The yearling pied cock being the first yearling to win from France in almost twenty years. The winning cock himself bred a hen to fly it two years later. This cheq hen was Martin’s 2006 French bird. She was untrained as a young bird and in the build up to France won from Mullingar, Tramore and a bad Talbenny. France was only her sixth ever race and she was sent sitting twelve days. She was then sent to Poitiers with the BBC along with three loft mates. But unfortunately at 696 miles to here it proved just too much of an ask.
A very young Martin with his late father Paddy with their Open winner in 1991.
One of Martin's biggest disappointments was the loss of his Black W/F cock which as a yearling was 12 hours on the wing from Bude. This cock flew Portland in 06 and was one of Martin's big hopes going forward not only as a racer but also as a breeder as his progeny have also left their mark in the breeding loft. A son when paired to his pied Lamballe hen bred the mother of Concannon Bros' 2nd St Malo and Pat Cregan’s late bred that also flew St Malo. Another of his daughters bred his 1st Section, 3rd Open Tullamore this year. In fact the pied Lamballe hen when paired to the Black W/f cock bred the dam of Concannon Bros' and the sire of Pat Cregan’s French pigeons.
Martin’s Blue Pair of Hoggs, as they have come to be known, have produced a fantastic line of winners. They are responsible for many of the French birds in the town in recent years. Martin himself rates the Hogg pigeons pound for pound as the best French producers around at the minute.
One of Martin's two guard dogs.
To get to racing, Martin reckons you need to breed about seventy young birds. Although he does breed more, he gives quite a few to other fanciers. He keeps about eight pairs of stock birds and will also take a round off his best racers.
Still enjoying it as much as ever and with his long suffering wife Bernie who has to put up with him, Martin surely will be successful, for many more years to come.
