| Willaim
Erwin Of Ireland
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| The
late William Erwin (r)
with good friend the late Bob
Harkness from Glenavy in County
Antrim. |
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The
Erwin family of Ballymena of which William
is our subject always had a connection with
the feathered world, especially pigeons.
He once wrote that he could not remember
being without pigeons of some sort and that
he had inherited the 'pigeon bug' from his
grandfather. With racing pigeons per se
William Irvine recalled racing early at
the short distances and meeting up with
other pigeoners at a pre arranged point
with the rubber rings. This was around the
time after his leaving of primary school
but in due course he became a member of
the historical Ballymena and District H.P.S.
Historical in one of a few senses, one of
which is that the club produced some of
the best names associated with the sport
in Ireland... Without
much success initially at racing and then
acquiring a taste or desire for racing
at the distance Erwin decided at the beginning
of the 1940s to purchase some distance
bloodlines. He looked at some of the great
British strains of the period and then
decided to base his distance ambitions
on the Osman strain. His first buy was
a mealy cock bird from the Heathcote Bros.,
of Stoke- on- Trent, England, to be followed
by a blue cheq pied Osman hen from another
immortal of Irish racing, Tommy Harper.
The Osman pied hen came to Harper via
A. H. Cornes and was a grand-daughter
of Osman's famous Olympic.
Erwin's choice was the right one for in
due course the mealy and the pied produced
winners with each other and with other
stock. The mealy being the base sire of
the Erwin family. Other purchases were
made over the years plus a blue cheq cock
known as 'Meadow Triumph' which arose
from a gift of eggs from the famous Smyth
Bros (whom I have written about in this
series). A fateful gift for in time Meadow
Triumph won the N.I.P.A. St. Malo Derby
for the Erwin lofts.
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Moonlight
Mannequin
2nd
Club Ballymena & District,
10th Section & 25th
Open NIPA Dinard OB Derby
1966 at 470 miles, and
clocked from Dinard again
in 1997. 1st Open INFC
Nantes and Kings Cup at
570 miles in 1968 flying
17 hours and 3 minutes.
Bred and raced by William
Erwin, Circular Road,
Ballymena, County Antrim,
Northern Ireland.
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Other
sources of good bloodlines arose through
close friendships with other great fanciers
such as Bob Harkness of Crumlin, County
Antrim. Harkness was another distance specialist
and he loaned the sire of 'Moonlight Mannequin'
who won 1st Irish Open National from Nantes
for Erwin at a distance of 570 miles. Others
such as the McCartney Bros. of Moira made
a similar contribution to the Erwin family.
In fact through the vehicle of friendship
the Erwin pigeons contained some of the
best distance Irish bloodlines ever. The
family ultimately moulded by William Erwin
was small of size with silky feathering
and small heads, often referred too as pinheads,
objected to by some writers in the sport
yet here we see a family pivotal in the
history of Irish pigeon racing with this
trait. They numbered 10 pairs of racers
and 3 pairs of stock birds. About two dozen
youngsters were reared each year and via
this small stud William Erwin competitively
competed against the best in Ireland and
indeed his bloodlines proved successful
beyond the shores of the Emerald Isle.
And when the races were tough the Erwin's
were usually to the fore for they were
a breed for a difficult race. Amongst
other positions the Erwin pigeons scored
1st Open and Kings Cup I.N.F.C. Nantes,
570 miles; 2nd Open I.N.F.C. Rennes, 510
miles; 5th Open I.N.F.C. Le Sables, 611
miles; 11th Open I.N.F.C. Nantes; 59th
Open I.N.F.C. Nantes; 1st Open N.I.P.A.
St. Malo Derby, 467 miles; 2nd Open N.I.P.A.
Dover Derby 410 Miles; 10th Open N.I.P.A.
St. Malo Derby, 467 miles; and 25th Open
N.I.P.A. Dinard Derby 470 miles. Bearing
in mind that some of the above successes
were in bad flying conditions and that
the majority minus one were flown across
two water ways namely the English Channel
and the Irish Sea.
The
name of William Erwin is forever etched
upon the history of distance racing into
Ireland and his enriching time in this
world confirms that one does not need
a large number of birds to face and conquer
the long and marathon distances.
A
lesson to be learned by many for I believe
that the sport has entered a crazy era
through the over production of our thoroughbreds
and mainly for the accumulation of the
pound, the dollar, or the euro, etc.Oh
the foibles of our species!
by: Liam O Comain
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