NEWS FROM SCOTLAND
Reports by Joe Murphy
Irish Visit - July 2014
Margaret and I had a few days in Ireland last week which was a great break and as a pigeon man it recharged my batteries. We sailed from Cairnryan to Larne and it was a beautiful day and the trip was as smooth as could be. We stopped at Newry as I had a couple of youngsters for my good friend Malachy Mcguire who had loaned me a couple of cocks to pair to 2 of my hens. Unfortunately Malachy was away on a week’s holiday but we met up with his son Mark who informed us that he had timed in 2 birds from the St Malo national race that very morning and hopefully the partnership will be well up in open result. We then made our way to Arklow in County Wicklow to visit my good friend Sheldon Leonard as I had ordered a pigeon from his Daniel Aerens ‘I had a dream’ Barcelona family. We arrived early evening and Sheldon met us and took us to his enchanting home where we met Niamh his charming wife and their 3 children. I had a quick look at the loft and birds but decided to wait until the following day when we had more time to have a good look at everything. Sheldon had booked us into a local hotel and on the way there he took me to meet up with John Conway who had purchased some pigeons from me last year and I wanted to meet up with John. Sheldon arranged to collect us the following morning at 10-30 which allowed us to explore the town of Arklow at our leisure.
Sheldon and Joe
It was a lovely morning and as we crossed the bridge we stopped and asked this man if he could take a picture of the both of us with the Avoca River in the background. He replied: ‘Why, are you both going to jump in?’ Well we laughed and laughed as it appealed to our sense of humour and was a great start to our visit. We met up with Sheldon who took us to his pigeon shop which has everything you could wish to purchase for your pigeons. He tries to help the pigeon fancy and was selling 20 kg bags of feed for 10 Euro each (top quality mixture) which is a great price nowadays and I brought a couple of bags home with me in the back of the car. I met up with a few local lads in the shop - these were Tom Dardis, Eric Kennedy and Paul Hannigan (the manager in the shop). Eric was driving the transporter and was going to take some of the members' pigeons away on a training toss. Soon afterwards I met up with Patrick Mullins and Patrick Corkery of Tralee in Co Kerry whom I had taken some pigeons over to. Paul made us a cup of coffee while Sheldon had to go home to attend to his birds. The two Patricks dropped me off at his house and Sheldon showed them his team of pigeons and they were both very impressed.
After lunch I spent a good few hours with Sheldon in his loft and this was a great ‘learning curve’ for me (you are never too old to learn something new). His widowhood cocks were outstanding and I picked a chequer white flight out as my first choice and a blue white flight cock 121 as my second selection. These pigeons were going to the Irish National Flying Club King’s Cup race from Saint Allouestre and he had 20 birds selected including his first 10 birds timed from Sennen Cove national this year, and believe me they were in excellent condition. However due to the weather forecast the race marking was cancelled until Thursday (this was again changed to Saturday with an anticipated race the following Tuesday). I have to say that I admire the INFC for their forward thinking of not having pigeons sitting in baskets when they have no chance of a race and I wish the SNFC would take a leaf out of this Irish organisation's book and do the same. The 2808 birds sent by 744 members were liberated at 06-20am into a light west wind on Tuesday 8th July with only 5 day arrivals. These were: B & P McEvoy of Castlebellingham doing a velocity of 854. 2nd R Bell & Sons of Edgarstown on 798. 3rd J Cullen of Bray Invitation who had 2 birds on 781 and 719 and 4th was W Scott of Cullybackey with a velocity of 768. Blain the winner of the Kings Cup is only 24 years old and is a close friend of Sheldon and he said to me that ‘Blain is the best up and coming fancier in Ireland’ even before he won this race on Tuesday. As for Sheldon he has not seen a feather and my heart goes out to him and the others who have not had a bird home. The sad thing about races like this is it sets you back years as it takes time to build up a team of birds to get to this stage in their lives.
Mark Maguire and Joe
The two things that impressed me the most at Sheldon's was firstly the quality of pigeons housed. His stock pigeons are bred from the very best and are brothers and sisters to recent international winners and ‘Champion bloodlines’ which have cost a lot of money. I was talking to Guy Reed last week on the same subject on how you see the same old names on the results year after year and we both agreed that it comes down to ‘quality pigeons’. These lads who have spent big money buying for example direct from top fanciers and crossing them together. They are fortunate in respect that they race the youngsters direct from these imports and 9 times out of 10 they are winners. Whereas the ordinary working class fancier cannot purchase direct pigeons from the champions and therefore can only afford grandchildren which are put to stock and race the offspring. When you think of it they are now 4 generations away from the champion pigeons and this to me is what makes ALL the difference. The old saying of ‘You only get what you pay for’ is definitely true. The other thing that impressed me was Sheldon’s feeding system this was ‘light years ahead’ of what I used to feed my birds on when I raced them. I know that Kevin has changed his feeding over the years and I came away with a few new ideas for us to try, one being in the future our pigeons will be fed ‘egg food’ so I will keep readers updated on our progress. This visit was a great experience for me and a learning curve and was like turning on a ‘light’ within me and the flame has started to burn inside with all the knowledge I gained from spending time with Sheldon and hopefully you will see our results improve over the next few years.
Regarding the pigeons I was very impressed with Sheldon’s stock pigeons especially his pigeons Daniel Aerens of Drongen that do well at the extreme distance. As a matter of fact Daniel had a great result from Barcelona a distance of 671 miles this weekend timing in one bird on the night to win 66th International and had 20 birds on his club result and had all 36 birds entered home from Barcelona, which was an outstanding performance - well done Daniel.
Sheldon's widowhood cock section
In the afternoon Sheldon showed us his collection of guitars. He has one signed by Brian May of Queen and a hand built one from Zakk Wylde of Ozzy Ozbourne & also one from Slash from Guns & Roses with a certificate of authenticity to go with them (see photo). Then Sheldon took Margaret and I to visit his aunt Lena Leonard and Jim at their cottage on the coast. This cottage was built by Sheldon’s great grandfather and it has not changed over the years. It was like stepping back in time with no mod cons here and a fire that when you looked up the chimney pot you could see the sky. I took a couple of pictures to show you the readers. This couple were as happy as could be and took life for what it is, a ‘Gift from God’ and they were the salt of the earth and it was indeed a pleasure to meet them. Sheldon’s wife Niamh had obtained a new dog from America named ‘Bonny’ that same day and this is being studied by Geographic Television as it is a very special breed. The TV Company filmed the birth of the puppies and Niamh has to give them a daily report on how Bonny is progressing. They also have to send videos etc. regarding the dog’s progress and this should be an interesting assignment for the family. Unfortunately Bonny had Niamh and Sheldon up all night, maybe due to being in a new environment, and she would not settle so when we called to say our goodbyes poor Niamh was in bed. Sheldon took us out of the town and showed us how to get onto the motorway to head north. Margaret and I cannot thank Sheldon and Niamh enough for their hospitality and kindness to us. They made us feel so welcome and at ease in their home and we have made friends for life. The only down side to this was that Sheldon never got a bird from the King's Cup race with only about 30 birds are home from a 2808 entry, but he was philosophical about it and said to me ‘There are an awful lot of great pigeons gone which is a terrible loss to the Irish pigeon sport, but life goes on and it is time to prepare for the next one’ which I have to say I admire as I do not think I could be so placid as this had I lost all my 20 top pigeons.
Home made guitar - see text
Joe’s Joke
Paddy staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy. He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Kathleen. He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step. As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful.
Managing not to yell, Paddy sprung up, pulled down his pants and looked in the hall mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and bleeding. He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place he saw blood. He then hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed. In the morning, Paddy woke up with searing pain in both his head and butt and Kathleen staring at him from across the room. She said, 'You were drunk again last night weren't you?'
Paddy said, 'Why you say such a mean thing?' 'Well,' Kathleen said, 'it could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly, it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror.
Please continue to keep the news flowing; to Joe Murphy Mystical Rose Cottage 2 Flutorum Avenue Thornton by Kirkcaldy KY1 4BD or phone 01592 770331 or to my NEW EMAIL ADDRESS at;
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