As president of the Irish Homing Union (IHU), Mulcahy's small back garden is almost completely covered by a long wooden pigeon loft. Dozens of birds strut around behind the wire mesh.

Mulcahy, who will be 66 in May, joined his local pigeon club almost half a century ago at the age of 17.

Ireland's pigeon racing season began on schedule yesterday despite concerns that this year's races would be cancelled due to bird flu. At least 400 fanciers raced more than 6,000 birds from Thurles, Co Tipperary.

The Irish Homing Union had been negotiating with the Department of Agriculture for some time about the complications and dangers that bird flu might cause to the sport, and about the precautions that should be taken. And despite fears that this season's races might not go ahead, a licence was finally granted early last week for pigeon races.

"This thing blew out of all proportion, " said Mulcahy, referring to bird flu. "All these headlines saying people are going to die and that kind of thing. I mean, there have only been around a hundred people killed worldwide with this. It has been going on for years."

Research has shown that pigeons are especially resilient to bird flu and that, even when they come in close contact with other infected birds, the likelihood of them contracting the disease is low.

The IHU is made up of federations.

Clubs become members of federations in order to compete against other clubs during the racing season, which runs from April to September. In turn, individual fanciers race against each other within clubs on a weekly basis throughout the season.

Pigeon-racing is time consuming, according to Mulcahy, with huge personal resources going into teaching young birds to fly and training them for races. At first, the young birds are carried in a pigeon basket a few miles from their loft/home and released to fly back. This routine must be regular, with the distance increased each time until their training reaches around 30 to 50 miles a day, when the bird is ready for its first race of around 70 miles.

While all pigeon fanciers are registered for competitive purposes, they are also registered with the Department of Agriculture in case an outbreak of bird flu does occur. In that event, the sport would be shut down area by area.

"Pigeon fanciers in Ireland have been vaccinating their birds against viruses and diseases for years. We have done everything in our powers to make sure that they're safe, " said Mulcahy, who races under his grandfather's surname.

His son is also a fancier, and his sixyear-old granddaughter, Caitlin, has also taken a keen interest. Asked by her grandad about her favourite thing to do on a Friday night, she quickly replies, "Go down to the [pigeon] club and then go to the transporter"(the lorry where fanciers load their birds to send them off to race starting points).

A licence has yet to be granted this year for cross-channel races, of which there are about four every season, but Mulcahy doesn't envisage any problems if Ireland remains untouched by bird flu.

"We're very hopeful that we'll get the Channel racing licence, " he said.

"They've been allowed to race in England and everywhere else, despite that swan that was found in Scotland with the disease."

Mulcahy says his own success over the years has been "reasonable", but that's not why he races birds.

"It's having the hobby itself. If you won every race, you wouldn't be able to get back what you put into it. The time factor for one, you put so much time into it. There are people at the top end who make money , , you hear birds going for �?�100,000 and that , , but they're all sold to the studs in England and on the continent. The sport is really about the pigeon fanciers themselves. To become so masterful with a bird and to be able to train a bird, that's the skill. On a Saturday, when the first bird comes in, the thrill is unbelievable. You might not know if you're a winner for another couple of hours, but you're a winner in that moment."