For this report I want to cover the top 3 lo;s for the 2019 season. Balbriggan is a very compe,,ve
club so to get in to the top 3 you have to be at your best all season. Our club has about 23 flying
members sending between 300 to 400 birds weekly. The top three fanciers for 2019 are top spot are
the Mr & Mrs partnership of Jackie and Moyra McMahon, second is the lo;s of Stephen Dunne &
son Peter and third is PJ Corcoran & Son Tony. These 3 lo;s are never far from the top as each year
they come up with some outstanding results. I’ve ask them to put a few word together for me on
their winning lo;s so here’s what they had to say.
We will start with the top lo; of Mr & Mrs J. McMahon who had a fantas,c year with a total of 8x 1st
clubs and many other top posi,ons. Jackie & Moyra have been life,me members of Balbriggan
Invita,on RPC who are affiliated to the East Coast Fed and are also members of the Irish Na,onal
Flying club. They have always been ac,ve in the running side of the club and the fed with Jackie
being the past secretary of the fed for a number of years and was also club chairman for a number of
years. Moyra is at present the feds treasurer, a job she does very well. Jackie was born into pigeons
with his father being the late P McMahon. Jackie’s two brothers also carried on racing pigeons, the
late Thomas who raced very well up un,l his passing a few years back and Francis who is s,ll a
member of our club and races very well geXng his fair share of wins each year so you could say
pigeons is in the blood. Jackie never realised how good of a fancier his father was and looking back at
his performances they were just outstanding with a very small team of birds. The “P” as he was
known won 1st & 2nd IHU Na,onal from Skibbereen in 1957 with the only bird on the day, in 1958 he
won 1st IHU Na,onal Girvan and in 1961 he again won the IHU Na,onal from Lerwick all to his small
back garden lo;. Jackie races about 15 to 20 cocks and has about 30 hens, they don’t like to
overcrowd so try to keep the numbers down. They like to compete in all races form the first to the
last and hate to miss a race. They don’t set birds up for certain races either as they feel things go
wrong to many ,me’s. They mate all their stock and racing birds up at the end of January and when
the youngsters are shi;ed they separate the racers. They then treat for the usual cocci, canker &
worms a;er this they feel they are ready to train. Training is kept as simple as possible with a few 20
mile tosses privately and then put on to John Floods transporter. They race a crazy type of system as
Jackie calls it, one week it is widowhood and the next roundabout. This is so they can get their hens
fit and will con,nue with this for all the land programme. Some,mes they leave the cocks to run
with the hens on return from racing for up to two days to keep them keen. The birds raced are
mainly from Gerry O’Mara and are from the “Rocket Ronnie “ lines. They have been racing the
O’Mara pigeons since 2002 and had pigeons form Gerry’s dad Billy as well. These birds have got
beder and beder each year. They also race pigeons from the lo;s of Leslie Woodside and Joe
Doheny. For their youngsters they race on the darkness system star,ng the around mid March un,l
about mid June. Treatments are the same as old birds and they also give them a probio,c drink twice
a month to help their immune system. Training begins with 4 short tosses than its on to 12 miles
keeping them at this distance ,ll they start to beat Jackie home. They then put them on to John
Floods transporter as Jackie feel this helps than to break away. A;er two races they train only if
Jackie thinks they need it. Over the years they have been lucky to win many races but some that
stands out for them is the ,me they were the winners of 1st club 2nd open East Coast Fed from St.
Malo with an O Mara x Woodside cross hen that went back the following year to 3rd club & 25th
open. They have also to their credit 1st club 1st open E.C.F Penzance plus 1st club 1st fed 2nd open
Skibbereen young bird na,onal and also 1st club 1st fed 1st south sect 9th open I.N.F.C Penzance YB
Nat. They have topped the fed many ,mes in 2018, they were fed winners on 3 occasions and 2nd
twice. In 2019 they won the club 8 ,mes plus 6 seconds and 4 thirds. They also have won the feds
gold medal twice for the best young bird performance on the channel. Jackie & Moyra would like to
congratulate all the club winners and would like to wish them all the best for 2020.
Our next lo; is that of Stephen Dunne & son Peter. This lo; has been at the top in Balbriggan R.P.C
on more than one occasion with some weeks taking 5 to 6 posi,ons out of the top ten and performs
excep,onally well when it comes to young bird racing. Stephen gets a helping hand from his good
friend Wayne Marry. When it comes to training they keep their birds moving with 20 mile tosses
Monday to Thursday. They have been racing Peter Vandeweer pigeons since 2008 and they find they
work overall very well for them. Stephen put up a fantas,c performance this year from the
Skibbereen young bird na,onal placing 1st club Balbriggan, 1st Open E.C.F, 2nd Middle Sec,on and
7th Open I.N.F.C with a smashing blue hen now names “muscles" a;er lo; hand Wayne.
Next up is the lo;s of Pj Corcoran & Son Tony who year in and out put up a very consistent
performance throughout the year. They race to a single storey lo; with 8 sec,ons and race their old
birds on the roundabout system and the youngsters are raced on the darkness. They house various
strains of birds but the main one being Janseen / Verheye. Feeding is mainly beans, peas, maize and
tares and treatment is the usual canker and worms. Red and black minerals are available to the birds
at all ,mes and they put garlic in the water 3 ,mes a week with a small amount of iodine added once
per week. Stock birds are mated in February and the race team towards the end of March. When
training of the old birds starts they go twice a week to a distance ranging between 12 to 40 miles.
They like to train them north and south and find that their team perform beder into a north west
wind. They try to mo,vate their birds by having them hatching a certain ,me to suite a certain race.
Channel and the French races are preferred and their record shows that this suits their team. They
have had great success over the years winning an I.N.F.C hall of fame award in 1998 with their
Champion “Melissa’s Pet”. This hen has some record having won France 4 ,mes, In 1995 as a yearling
she won 1st club 2nd open E.C.F. Dinard, the following year in 1996 she was 1st club, 1st open E.C.F, 1ST
South Sec,on, 17th open I.N.F.C Rennes Kings Cup. In 1997 the kings cup was from St. Nazaire where
she finished 1st club, 71st Open I.N.F.C. and then in 1998 she was again 1st club, 1st open E.C.F, 3RD
open I.N.F.C King Cup. They have also won two I.N.F.C merit awards in 2001 & 2003 they have also
been awarded 7 gold medals with the East Coast Fed for their performances over the years, this
shows the quality of fanciers these lads are. Their list of prizes for 2019 are as follows; from
Skibbereen with the old birds they were 1st club, 2nd fed and with the young birds they were 1st and
2nd club, 1st & 2nd fed, 7th & 12 south sec,on 44th & 114th open I.N.F.C Penzance Y.B. Na,onal. They
were also the old bird channel and na,onal average winners also winning the best yearling and were
awarded the best young bird with the Irish homing union on the channel.
Thank you all for the information supplied as this makes my job a lot easier and I would like to wish
you all the best for the coming season if we get a season with Coronavirus about it doesn't look very
promising. The main thing is to stay safe and we will hope we get racing some ,me. Till next ,me,
enjoy your pigeons.
Ken Guildea P.R.O Balbriggan Invita,on R.P.C.
PH: 01 8415785
Mr & Mrs J McMahon.
Stephen Dunn & Son.
P J Corcoran (r) and son Tony (far left).