McGovern Bros - Good Pigeons & Hard Work

By Keith Stafford (Dec 2009)

Having promised a loft visit early on in the 2009 Young Bird Season, myself & my father made the short journey over to the home of Sean McGovern, to visit the lofts of McGovern Brothers who earlier on in the season managed to notch up several wins to add to their outstanding record to date. McGovern Brothers race in the very strong Greenhills & District Club on the Southside of the Dublin City, and in 2009 the partnership racked up 8 x 1st, 9 x 2nds, 6 x 3rd along with many other positions, which in total was good enough to make them Club Champions for 2009. The partnership is no stranger to this title, as since joining the Greenhills & District Club in 1994, the partnership has been Club Champion in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003 and now 2009.

The competition in Greenhills & District is such, that putting performances in as the aforementioned will result in some top positions at Federation Level.  As it is myself who develops the Irish South Road Federation website I came across these performances earlier on in the year. The Federation results in full for the 2009 Season are as follows :

The above performances meant that McGovern Brothers featured consistently well in all the overall points awards in the Federation, while also winning the Old Bird, Young Bird & Overall Points in Section G of the ISRF. Similar to winning Averages at Club Level the partnership haven't been shy of taking awards at Federation Level, most notably the following:

2002 Irish South Road Federation Young Bird Overall Points Winner

2002 Irish South Road Federation Young Bird Top 50 Winner

2003 Irish South Road Federation Young Bird Overall Points Winner

2003 Irish South Road Federation Young Bird Top 50 Winner

2003 Irish South Road Federation Overall Top 50 Winner

2003 Irish South Road Federation Overall Points Winner

2009 Irish South Road Federation Top Flyer Southside

Sean started off racing in 1993, and for the first year raced into the Rialto & District R.P.C. before joining the Greenhills & District R.P.C. in 1994. The family of pigeons which have been created in the last two decades originate from the lofts of Roy Wright based around the Lee Putins origin. The partnerships approach to creating a successful loft has been simple - Good Pigeons & Plenty of Hard Work! The pigeons which have performed well are the ones who kept, and this has resulted in a stock loft full of Club & Federation winners who are know providing the off spring for successful racing going forward.

The 18 foot Young Bird loft houses approx 50 Young Birds per season, and all occupants are put on the darkness system. The birds are treated for all the common illnesses such as Respiratory, Canker, Cocci & Worms prior to racing along with being vaccinated as early as possible once weaned off. The system after that is kept simple, with birds being trained hard and fed well. Sean admits that he feeds heavy but that if the birds are being worked hard then they have to be fed well otherwise they will fall back. The young birds are trained once on Monday, twice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and once on a Friday. Once the birds are put on the road they are never let outside, and this includes taking a bath inside the loft. The basket tells the partnership all they need to know and as previously mentioned the birds that race well are kept for Old Bird Racing, with only birds winning the Fed making their way to the stock loft.

For Old Bird Racing the birds are raced on the roundabout system so that both cocks and hens can be raced. Similar to the Young Birds the Old Birds are trained once on Monday, twice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and once on a Friday. When the birds come back from their Friday morning training session they are allowed to run together for a few hours to get them revved up for the race. Sean mentioned that he is not that bothered if the hens pair up during the week as they will soon change their minds once they see the cocks on a Friday, but keeping the hens busy with training helps keep them from pairing up.

After a good long chat about the way Sean goes about running the loft it was obvious that they try to keep everything as simple as possible. They obtain the best birds they can get their hands on, work them hard and only the best stay. The basket tells this partnership all they need to know about the pigeon, and think its safe to say some of these pigeons have stood out over the past two decades.

Joe O'Neill was kind enough to print out a report for McGovern Brothers for the past few season and below are a small selection of some stand out performances. Before finishing up Sean would like to say a special thank you to Tommy Moorehouse (East Coast Fed), Wright Bros (Doncaster) & Noel Smith (ISRF) for all their help over the years.

I would like to thank Sean for his hospitality on the day we visited and I wish this partnership all the best for the future.

Keith Stafford

The Impressive Collection Of Trophies Racked Up Over The Last Few Seasons