Yes, true! His crime? - 'trifling with women!'

Tried and committed by the assembled lords and ladies at Bunratty Castle in the south of Ireland.

The lords and ladies were there gathered for the show of the Irish Flying and Fancy Pigeon Society's Annual Show in Limerick.

And who was this well-known judge of pigeons? ' Well, 'twas one Robert Snaith, already exiled to the Emerald Isle from his long-time home in England. It may have been down to the fact that he was due to judge at Doncaster and his absence from that event would have greatly upset the exhibitors in those classes that his appeals for clemency were upheld.

But this was on pain (and that was the word!) of singing to the assembly which he so did and was released from his dungeon but showed no remorse by making unseemly gestures to the witnesses there gathered.

The foregoing entertainment was arranged for participants in the show at a mediaeval banquet, held the evening before the show and was just one part of a weekend much enjoyed by the Irish and visiting English (and Scottish) pigeon fraternity.

By now, a number of you reading this will know just what a memorable event this is. A show inside a hotel! One of our top show racer men, Jim Fitzpatrick (Fitzpatrick & Fleming, Scotland) asked me in the hotel lobby where the show was being held. I opened a door no more than eight or nine feet away from where we stood and pointed to the pens with the birds already in them. He could not believe his eyes!

Beverley and I had traveled with our 'International Judges and their Wives' group of Peter and Jayne Abbott and Kevin and Christine Keeler. Prior to the show, we had hired a minibus, as we did in Australia, and toured the Ring of Kerry, including the Lakes of Killarney, surely one of the most scenic places in the world?

Arriving at the show, we met the aforementioned Jimmy Fitz, Richard Henderson, Barry Collins, Ian Johnson and Jim Mullan.

We were all made most welcome, the hospitality was great, the Irish are a lovely people - and very keen fanciers.

There were almost a thousand birds staged. Personally, I had 146 to do, which took a long time, mainly due to the necessity of putting so much information on the prize cards, including right down to ring numbers on the third prize cards too. Not really required when a catalogue was also available.

I had 14 different breeds to judge, some of which I was not too familiar with but my biggest class was, believe it or not, Archangels, which was, in fact a class of Gimpels. I put one of these, shown by J & M Murphy up into the BIS line-up, also an Exhibition Fantail from a young lad named Anthony Kelly, a black African Owl from the renowned Norman Murphy and a cracking black laced Satinette from Michael Kelly. The BIS judging was entirely an English affair with Kevin Keeler, Peter Abbott and Richard Henderson finally agreeing on Niall Barry's West as Best. (Niall is judging at the forthcoming Federation Show in Bristol along with another lad from the Emerald Isle, Damien Clark - exhibitors there may be assured that these boys know their Wests!)

More in November issue of Feathered World