Racing Into Ireland - Braking records beyond all belief
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The distance between Dublin city to the UK if racing from penzance is approximately 300 miles of what is considered to be one of the roughest channel crossings in the world.

The weather conditions for the channel crossings are pretty much the same every year with N.E head winds reaching 35 - 55 mph and on many occasions grinding head winds all the way, beating ice winds, rain and even hale stones hammering the birds all the way home.

The Irish fanciers have put to the test, many of the all time grates of the older type strains such as Logan, Putman , Grooters, Gurna, Cattrysse, Huysken Van Reil , Hansenne, Fabry, Busschaert, Denys, Delbar, Kirkpatrick, Dordin, Krauth, Gits etc.

These testing grounds have been dominated over the years by many of the all time greats past and present, names to mind: (will be adding more at a later date)

N.I.P.A : Bertie Fletcher, John Paterson, Mr & Mrs Delaney, J.F. McAllister, Kirkwood Brothers, Alan MacDonald , Bernard Mairs, Billy Parkes, G & S McGreevy, Russel Brothers, J.R.McCracken & Sons, Smyth Brothers, Ronnie Williamson, Alan Darragh...etc

I.S.R.F : Joe Doheny, Eddie Reid, Frank Andrews, Noel Grant, Willie Delaney, Christy O'Conner, Larry Harris, G.O'Mara, J.Brady & Sons, C.Keogh, Joe White, Brenden Madden David Brown...etc

We have had strains from our continental friends in Ireland for many years and even though the birds were sprinting and doing the distance in Belgium and the Netherlands, when introduced to the masters lofts both in the north and south of Irlenad they didn't like the pint of beer that was being dished up to them.. Not one of the earlier Belgium strains was ever recorded in race time in the early days.

It took master fanciers many years to cultivate a family of birds from the orignal Janssens that could fly and race the channel, because when the first wave of orignal Janssens hit Ireland, they were not making any noise or braking any great records, It was only 14 years ago that the very first Janssen or janssen based bird had crossed the channel into northern ireland in normal race time and won.

In the earlier days many of our continental friends would have birds in blackpool and in many cases give their birds to the masters to take home with them as gift birds, birds that they themselves wanted to see how they shaped up compared to what was presently being raced on the channel, knowing that if the can fly the channel, then they can fly anywhere in the world, quite a few continental fanciers used this as a form of marketing their own birds to overseas clients.

Without any doubt, the true testing grounds in the sport of pigeon racing. there are still many parts of the world that have no comprehension as to the magnitude of fanciers there are in the British isles and the routes flown, thanks to the internet they are seeing and hearing more about our ace flyers who have raced the channel and broke all records beyond all belief.

To be continued:
Our sprint flyers, our distance flyers, our over all ace flyers that have broke all records beyond all belief.