Training Problems for Dublin Area -

[willie reynolds]

Following a meeting last week between the I.H.U. and the Aircorp. Henry Byrne issued the following statement.

{1} The Aircorp intends to ask the police to arrest any fanciers/trainers that release birds on the following routes.
{2} Nass road from Balldonnell Airdrome
{3} Nass road as far as Naas
{4} Punchestown
{5} Nass as far as the Curragh
{6} The Curragh
{7} Kilcullen
{8} Carlow
{9} and as far as Portlaoise

{8} The Aircorp wants all fanciers and trainers to train from the points along the East Coast. If fanciers continue to train birds from these points then the Aircorp intend to have a squad of personal on the runway at Baldonnel with the intention to SHOOT any birds crossing the runway. I’m sure that this will be discussed in detail at the upcoming I.H.U. Annual Meeting in 2 weeks time!

Henry Byrne - Vice President I.H.U. Southern Region.

With the race season just about to get underway and a lot of lofts training in the recent spell of very good weather this is a big problem to fanciers especially in Dublin who use this favourite route for training. A number of years back pigeon traffic was a big problem over Dublin Airport and race organisations in Northern Ireland changed their race points to down the Centre of Ireland. Very little activity has been reported at Dublin Airport since and the move of the race points has been a good success. Not sure if the new restrictions will effect fanciers in Northern Ireland, there has been some discussion regarding Pilmore Beach and Fermoy. We will keep you posted on developments.

We had the same problem at the Belfast International Airport at Aldergrove with fanciers releasing training birds close to the runways, it took a very long time to deal with the problem and thankfully the restriction is now observed by everyone, and thank goodness for that. The NIPA will have the first race of the year from Tullamore on Saturday 14th April, clubs are getting everything in place and birds are being trained most days.