From the Editor

There are over 40 birds in Cairán McFlaherty's pigeon coop, and to the untrained eye they all look pretty much alike: various shades of black and white, melting sometimes into grey, and at other times mottled as if an ink bottle were accidentally dropped and splattered carelessly over the plumage.

It is early morning and today is race day. Today's race from Cork to Wicklow is a precursor to the “big one” from France to Wicklow. It is 130 miles from Cork to Wicklow — as the bird flies. The distance over land is much farther as the road meanders along the southeast coast, landing at numerous bays where small towns have arisen to serve the needs of fishermen and foreign invaders alike.

Cairán looks over his birds and the hills surrounding Wicklow; he considers the light and the weather, which has a feeling of change about it. He must choose which birds to select for the race. At the moment there is a calm in the air, a gentle breeze wafts down from the hills, brushing past your cheeks, making you look up to see if there was perhaps a communication you missed. He opens the coop door, inviting the birds to help him choose who will fly today. They fly out but stay close to home, circling and dancing overhead on the wind currents. They return after five-minute flights to the ledges and prominanteries haphazardly built onto the face of the coop. They tease and cajole each other for position and consideration in the hierarchy of the flock.

The present-day pigeon evolved from the rock dove, a non-migratory bird that unless threatened would settle into a “home” for life, an avian homesteader. Carvings of rock doves have been found in Egyptian relics from 3000 BC. For seemingly unremarkable birds, their history is quite remarkable. Genghis Khan used them to carry messages across his conquered empire. In 1850, Julius Reuter, of news agency fame, used them to bridge gaps between telegraph stations in Europe, and during the First and Second World Wars records indicate that 31 pigeons