Pigeon Network

The N.I.P.A. will race mark as planned on Tuesday 20th June for the Saint Malo old bird national for a possible release on Friday.

Collection times for Tuesday Evening. - Coalisland 6:00 pm Loughgall 6:30pm Portadown 7:00pm

- Lurgan 7:30pm Lisburn 8:30pm Larne 7:30pm Ligoniel 8:00pm

- Derry 5.00pm, Coleraine 6:00 pm, Cullybackey 7:15 pm, Muckamore 8:00pm Doagh 8:30pm Killyleagh 7:30pm

- Newry Around 10:00 to 10:30pm.

Please call back for updates. We need a photo of all Section winners for the publicity of each race. Quite a number were missed in the OB Season. Send either to my Phone 07538 238364, Email reynoldshomer@aol.com or post to Facebook.

Do please remember the deadline for the RPRA Meritorious Awards in each NIPA Section must be claimed within two weeks of the race, that’s Saturday 1st July. Individual bird performance over two cross channel races Talbenny (2) & Penzance.

Friday 23/06/17

The NIPA have released in St Malo this morning at 6.30 in a light Westerly wind

St. Malo Friday 22:30
Posted on June 23, 2017 by trevor
Saint Malo Friday @ 22:30/

No pigeons have been reported at 22:30 from today’s race. Hours of darkness 23:02 until 04:35. Second day arrivals three hour clock checking rule applies until further notice.

Saint Malo update Saturday 24th June @ 10:20
Posted on June 24, 2017 by trevor
Saint Malo Saturday 24th June 2017 @ 10.20.

Second day arrivals recorded.

Donnelly Bros. Newry 06:23, Russell Bros. Dromara 06:25 velocity 705.73, M O’Reilly & Son Lisburn 07:03 velocity 691.49. Also I hear Allan McDonald Portadown & Drumcree.

Three hour clock checking rule applies for second day arrivals until further notice.

Saint Malo update Saturday 24th June @ 16:50
Posted on June 24, 2017 by trevor
Saint Malo Saturday 24th June 2017 @ 16.50.

Second day arrivals recorded. Donnelly Bros. Newry 06:23 velocity 694, Russell Bros. Dromara 06:25 velocity 705.73

M O’Reilly & Son Lisburn 07:03 velocity 691.49, A McDonald Portadown & Drumcree 10:18 velocity 591

McMurray & Anderson Ligoniel 14;23, N Black & Son Dromara 15:52 velocity 485

Any further second day arrivals please contact the secretary on 028 92693913 to arrange clock check off time.

Saint Malo update Saturday 24th June @ 22:00
Posted on June 24, 2017 by trevor
Saint Malo Saturday 24th June 2017 @ 22:00.

Second day arrivals recorded. Russell Bros. Dromara 06:25 velocity 705.73

Donnelly Bros. Newry 06:23 velocity 694, M O’Reilly & Son Lisburn 07:03 velocity 691.49

A McDonald Portadown & Drumcree 10:18 velocity 591, McMurray & Anderson Ligoniel 13;43

N Black & Son Dromara 15:52 velocity 485, Martin Graham Ballymena 19:34

Any further second or third day arrivals please contact the secretary on 028 92693913 to arrange clock check off time.

The Premier Old Bird National for the NIPA was flown last Friday, all the Irish birds were released at 6.30am in a Light Westerly wind. It was expected to be a hard race, it turned out more difficult than that. No birds made home lofts on the day of liberation and just 7 Magnificent arrivals were recorded in the NIPA at the end of the second day. The hope is a few more can be added before closing time on Monday.

Outside of the NIPA the first bird clocked at 513am in Drogheda wins the famous Millar Gold Cup for Carter Bros and one East Down Combine bird on the second day was timed in Portavogie by J & R Young, congratulations to all. In the NIPA long time fanciers Russell Bros of Dromara won 1st Open & 1st Sect D from the French Classic after coming close on several occasions, they timed at 6.25am to record velocity 705 and win the News of the World Cup, McComb Cup and Pigeonportal Cup. Donnelly Bros from Newry City were runner-up and 1st Sect G, the Lisburn & Dist loft of M O’Reilly & Son were 3rd Open & 2nd Sect D. Over the rest of the day former Kings Cup winner Allan McDonald from Portadown & Drumcree won 1st Sect E, McMurray & Anderson 1st Sect C into Ligoniel, another former Kings Cup winner N Black & Son timed a second arrival for Dromara and late evening at 19.34hrs Martin Graham of Ballymena & Dist wins Sect B & Mid Antrim Combine.

Martin Graham is a third generation racing the birds in Ballymena, I remember his grand-father racing in Brooke Park when we lived there many years ago when nearly every other house had a loft. His father Robert raced at Greenmount Terrace and he was a former Chairman in Ballymena & Dist, Martin is now Vice-Chair in Ballymena. Over recent years he has been the top distance loft in the Big Club and this most recent success is well deserved. Martin nearly won this race in 2003 - 1st Section & 2nd Open Lamballe (France) - “Champion Siobhan” - a winner of five 1sts. A year later the loft scored 2004 - 1st Section & 1st Open Rosscarberry O.B Inland Derby 9,559 pigeons into a west wind – “Sunnyhill Lass”.

I would imagine this latest race from France will be the subject of a long discussion in the next number of week’s, every aspect of the event will need looked at.

NIPA Race/Date
Friday 23/06/17 – Lib 6.30am in Lt Westerly wind.

NIPA St Malo 422/1535 – 1-1D Russell Bros Dromara 705, 2-1G Donnelly Bros Newry City Inv 694, 3-2D M O’Reilly & Son Lisburn & Dist 691, 4-1E Allan McDonald Portadown & Drumcree 591, 5-1C McMurray & Anderson Ligoniel 518, 6-3D N Black & Son Dromara 465, 7-1B Martin Graham Ballymena & Dist 441, 8-2E Oliver Jackson Bondhill 297, 9-3E A McMullan Annaghmore 276, 10-4E S & N Lester Laurelvale 251.

NIPA Clubs St Malo -

Dromara – Russell Bros 6.25am second day velocity 705, N Black & Son 15.52hrs velocity 485.

Newry City Inv – Donnelly Bros 6.23am second morning doing velocity 694. Bird bred by N Black & Son Dromara.

Lisburn & District – M O’Reilly & Son 7.03am doing velocity 691. This loft was 2nd Sect D in 2014 and won the Gold Medal.

Portadown & Drumcree HPS – Allan McDonald 10.18am second day velocity 591.

Ligoniel – McMurray & Anderson 14.23hrs second day. Only bird in the East Antrim Sect C, and only yearling in the result.

Ballymena & District 10/39 – Martin Graham 19.34hrs second day. Only bird in Sect B, also 1st Mid Antrim Combine flying 474 miles. Martin has topped the Sect B for the second time in this OB Nat from France.

Bondhill – Oliver Jackson 297. Only 4 year old bird in the result,

Annaghmore – A McMullan only bird velocity 276.

Laurelvale – S & N Lester 251.

Allan McDonald, Portadown & Drumcree – 1st Sect E & 4th Open NIPA

The Portadown Area have a big record in this race and yet again produced a top result for Allan McDonald who timed his two year old winner at 10.18am on the second morning to take 1st Club, 1st Sect E & 4th Open NIPA. The loft are former winners of the Blue Riband Kings Cup and more recently won Penzance and the Penzance OB Classic. Oliver Jackson had 1st in Bondhill, A McMullan was 1st in Annaghmore and S & N Lester were 1st in Laurelvale.

Congratulations to club stalwart and all around gentleman, Allan McDonald on clocking from St Malo and winning 1st Club, 1st Section E & 4th NIPA Open, from what will go down in history as one of the toughest OB National races in memory.
The winning birds sire was 1st Club, 43rd North Section & 51st INFC YB Grand National in 2014, so steeped in winning bloodlines. On behalf of Paul and myself I would like to say a massive well done, to Allan whose sportsmanship is only matched by his kindness and generosity. Al Larkin.

Martin Graham, Ballymena & District HPS – 1st Sect B & 7th Open NIPA

What a fitting tribute on the day of Martins twin sisters anniversary (sadly passed away due to cancer) that he would win 1st Sect B & 7th Open NIPA St Malo Old Bird National and name his latest top performing, 2year old Blue Cheq hen Champion "Brenda-Ann ", in memory of his dear sister.

Breeding: Sire - One Of My Top Producers - is a G/son of " The Big Hen " (Best of the old Norman Thompson / FVW Family) who is now responsible for 43 x National prize-winners to date. He is also the G/sire of a hen that was 15th Open INFC Penzance Y/B National in 2015, with only 126 home in race time. He is also sire of Martin's 2nd bird home from INFC Penzance Y/B National 2016 finishing 42nd Open and Martin can now add 7th Open St Malo 2017 (only 10 birds in 3 days) to this super breeding cock. Dam: A full sister of Paul Swindell’s Champion "Queen Of The Rain" who finished 2nd Open INFC Friendship National with only a handful of birds home in race time. Martin would also like to thank Donal Barry for his professional advice regarding the health of his birds and to the many fancier friends who called or phoned to congratulate him - Many Thanks - .

Photo Captions –

Martin Graham proudly displaying Champion "Brenda Ann " in the company of niece's Keighlea & Jessica.

Allan McDonald holding his winner from St Malo.
Oliver Jackson collects the Vint Cup for 1st Open Bude at Ladies Night.

These are weather reports for the 23rd of June from early morning for St Helier in Jersey , St Peters Port in Guernsey and Poole in Dorset any club requiring a copy of these please contact the NIPA office, a full investigation into the OB National by ALL organisations has taken place and a full report agreed by all organisations will be published in due course. Weather reports and photos at St Malo are on the NIPA Site.

Committee Meeting change of date.
Posted on June 28, 2017 by fred
The full Committee meeting to be held on Tuesday 4th July at 7.30 sharp has now been rearranged for Monday 10th July same time. Please do your utmost to attend

NIPA - Anyone wishing to claim for any Old Bird Award would they please send in these claims as soon as possible and before the Young Bird season commences, would all members please return any trophy’s in good condition that they hold also before the YB season commences.

NIPA - ST MALO RACE REPORT - 2017
NORTHERN IRELAND PROVINCIAL AMALGAMATION OF RACING PIGEON SOCIETIES
Enquiry into the Liberation and race from St. Malo 2017

Organisations present at this meeting
Northern Ireland Provincial Amalgamation,
Ulster Federation
East Coast Federation Southern Ireland
Irish South Road Federation
Apologies from The East Down Combine
27th June 2017

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the enquiry.
Mr Jim Ramsey reported on the weather conditions at St. Malo and on route

Thursday: Met Erin reported that condition for Friday morning looked favourable, with cloud cover
good visibility light south west wind, it would be humid and it would improve throughout the
afternoon.

For Friday morning Met Erin reported that rain would cross Ireland into Wales and a strong South
Westerly wind would move the rain on.
Mr Ramsey confirmed that he was in contact with all organisations on Friday morning before a
release took place. ALL ORGANISATIONS WERE IN FAVOUR TO LIBERATE.

Mr Ramsey contacted Glen Moon in Jersey on the morning of release. He reported that the weather
conditions in the Channel Islands was favourable.

Mr Ramsey confirmed he had received a shipping forecast around 4:00am and spoke to the
conveyer at 5:01 am Friday morning. The conveyer reported good visibility and cloudy at St. Malo.
Mr Ramsey confirmed he contacted Mr Glen Moon at 5:15 am, he confirmed a red sky with a light
west wind. Contact was then made to the conveyer around 5:17 and again around 5:54 and 6:10.
All organisations were contacted around 6:20 am, it was agreed a liberation would take place around
6:30am, The French Agent was on site and overseen the release and signed the permit.

Mr Ramsey contacted the conveyer at around 6:32 am and he confirmed the birds left in 90 seconds
in a Northerly Direction into a light westerly wind.

I have posted on site the weather history for Saint Helier Jersey , St Peter Port Guernsey, and Poole
in Dorset England, also photographs of the release site on Friday Morning.

I have just received the following report from the race controller Mr Jim Ramsey
Thursday 22nd
June 2017

Contacted Paul & Bow (Richard). We spoke for about 8 minutes about the convoy of birds, their rest
period, water & food also their current position

Everything looked positive, I spoke to Gary & Ken and in turn Fred, these calls were up to and around
3:00pm. Fred asked if I had spoken to Paul today I replied yes, and agreed that no further photos to
be published on Facebook. I contacted Paul and asked him to continue taking photos but keep them
until he returned home and we would publish them on the NIPA site. After this I spoke to Henry
Byrne about lib site, the original site was unaccesable due to the large numbers of livestock grazing. I
requested Henry to contact his convoy to alert them of this and to meet up with the Nipa
Transporter. I also obtained a number for a fancier from Jersey, who I spoke to later and arranged
for the next morning to contact him around 5:00am and also to speak to him later that evening.
I contacted all organisations that were being transported with the Nipa giving each one a brief
breakdown on everything as it stood with regards to weather reports for the next morning. These
had been received from Met Erin earlier that afternoon. They contained details from St. Malo right
through to England and from Wales to the East Coast of Ireland and a general weather situation in
Ireland, all was very positive Light west winds which would pick up in the afternoon very good
visibility with cloud cover and in the Irish sea freshening south west winds pushing any rain
northwards above Wales.

Friday 23rd June 2017
I rose at 4:00am and proceeded to do weather checks on BBC Shipping and coastal reports. I made
contact with Paul & Bow around 5:00am and we discussed how the weather was, French time
6:00am ,further calls were made at 5:17 6:10 6:26 6:32 6:45 7:08 8:17 10:35 & 11:55 am regarding
the release and weather conditions after the liberation, everything was all good and no sightings 0f
pigeons returning to the area

At 5:13 our time I made contact with JERSEY and while he said all was fine, things would be better in
another hour, in turn I let the conveyer know.
I spoke to the contact in Jersey at 5:54 am and said everything looks grand .I also informed him it
was my intentions to release at 6:30 our time 7:30am French time. He said good luck, I spoke to him
again at 7:27 and he informed me that west wind had picked up a bit, it was as good a visibility that
he would get .He informed me that he could see quite clearly a marker which was 13 miles away
towards St. Malo.

I asked him if he would report back if he seen any pigeons going over the Island, he replied the bird`s
no longer come over the Island unless there are extreme Easterly winds, the birds fly up the
Cherbourg Peninsula and cross the channel to arrive around Poole, from 6:03 TO 6:21 am i spoke to
Gary, Ken Fred and all the organisations with us , everyone was OK with all the report`s and I
informed the Conveyer it was fine to release at 6:30am . After the release all organisations were
contacted and informed of the release at 6:30am and how the bird`s cleared the race point.
I also went through live webcams in Poole, Weymouth, and Portland on several occasions during the
morning, I had been speaking to Gary on several occasions putting all our information together and
all his contact`s and checks were coming back very positive and was very similar to the report`s I was
getting

Jim Ramsey Race controller of the Nipa

The following report was received from the Conveyer and Transport Manager.

On Friday morning at 5:01 am, We received our first contact with the Race Controller, he asked for
an update on the weather conditions, our finding where that the morning was bright with very light
west winds, there was cloud cover but patches of light blue sky could be seen in the direction of the
flight path and I had excellent visibility. The steeple on the church at St. Pere was clearly visible a
distance of over 2 Kilometres due North. To the South of us the cloud was much darker.
As the liberation time approached the day became brighter and the race controller could see no
reason why a liberation could not go ahead at 6:30am.

After liberation all Nipa birds cleared within 90 seconds due north and none returned to the site
before we left at approx. 9:30am to catch the 10:30am ferry to Portsmouth. On our sailing from St
Malo to Portsmouth the channel was clear and the visibility perfect

Signed Richard (Bow) Quinn
Paul Howard

I will finish this report by trying to answer some of the questions being asked of me
Why was the Nipa Conveyer not with the birds? Paddy was due to go and all the arrangements were
made, however I am told that an emergency had arisen and he could not go. Richard Quinn or as
many of you call him Bow Is our longest serving employee, many times he has convoyed our birds
and was conveyer of another organisation for a number of years. He was the obvious choice to
assist. I personally have every confidence in his ability to look after your pigeon`s and this was not
his first time in France.

Maybe you are not aware before we can release pigeons in France a member of the French Union
must be present to sign everything off. Claude has been our Agent at St. Malo for many years and is
a pigeon Fancier.

Was our bird`s properly watered and fed on route? Yes they were and I have to have an Animal
Transport Certificate for the journey completely completed stating times of Rest, Watering and
Feeding. Any club can request a copy.

What happened to our pigeons? I simply do not know, where are they? I have not any answers,
there is plenty of speculation but no one has approached any of the organisations to confirm
anything
Are they being reported in any numbers? The answer is no they are not.
Some member`s believe they went along the French Coast into Belgium and Holland I have no
evidence to back this up. Some believe that the summer solstice could have had an effect or maybe
radio waves in France have had an effect I do not have the answers.

The wind on the Irish sea I believe did not turn to South West and probably stayed mainly Westerly,
and the rain in parts of Wales did not move on as was predicted, so far there are not many reports
in Wales of pigeons so did they take another route I do not know.

All organisations have agreed to meet and draw up agreed measures what must be put in place
before a French Race can go ahead, when agreement is made you will all be notified.

The Irish South Road Federation would like it to be made known their video showing their liberation
at St. Malo does not reflect the actual conditions at release.

On Behalf of all of the organisations at St Malo we apologise for the way the race turned out and
offer our congratulations to all the fanciers who recorded an arrival.

Regards

Nipa, Ulster federation, East Down Combine, East Coast Federation, Irish South Road Federation