AS Micky Kelly retires from pigeon racing at the age of 76, he does it secure in the knowledge that there are no worlds left to conquer.
The north Belfast pigeon fancier, who dodged bombs and bullets on the New Lodge Road to run his birds during the Troubles, has won every possible title during his 50 years in the sport.
His start was not quite so auspicious, however, when, as a 10-year-old he and a friend went to Cecil Creighton's Bird Shop at Smithfield to buy their first pigeons.
"I came up in a completely different world then. We used to go down and gathered every Saturday and he sold pigeons for 6p/3d. We bought the pigeons to bring them home and put them in a tea chest.
"We let them out and waited for them to come back but they never did. The following Saturday we would go down and buy them again. We were 10-year-old fellas and they just sold them back to us again."
Mr Kelly went into competitive racing when he was 26 "when I had a bit more sense".
"Me and my friend Fra Smith formed a club in the New Lodge called the Carlisle Homing Pigeon Society (HPS) and we got members to join the club. We would take pigeons to Newry (get a man to drive then down) 40 miles away, and have a wee race and we had a man called John Maxwell as the referee. We would take them to him and show him their marker ring, that's how it started off.
"A man joined the club who knew what way to race pigeons and the rest of it. He was in another club and we joined the Ulster Federation and progressed. We went into the Star Boxing Club.
"When I started to get competitive my wife got me a clock as a birthday present. We all bought clocks when we were going to go competitive."
Mr Kelly found a mentor in the legendary Harry Granville from Ligoniel HPS who thought highly enough of his protege that he "gave me a whole lot of eggs to hatch out" from his own competition birds.
"I put them under my birds to rear them. I haven't looked back."
Indeed, as he bid farewell to the sport, the Abbey Social HPS member does so having achieved great heights in the Ulster Federation including first place in the open Talbenny young bird derby, the Open Skibberren Young Bird Derby, Open Young Bird Championship, Open Fermoy Five Bird Championship, Open Ulster Federation and Championship Race, and the Open Penzance Championship Race.
He is also proud to have twice come second in the Old Bird Derby.
Mr Kelly is what is classed as a master in the sport and tried to explain the scale of his achievements.
"If a man wins a club race it's fantastic, I've won all the club open ones. And the derby, it's a dream come true to win one in your lifetime, I've one about four or five. I've won everything in Ulster."
It is a tough sport. For the King's Cup in France, he would send "five or 10 birds" and "if you get one or two back you're very, very lucky".
He has seen vast changes over those five decades.
"It's not a hobby any more, it's very, very competitive. It's gone from two shillings to £2,000 for one bird. The highest bird a went for in the world was £150,000. Here in Britain people are paying £20,000-£30,000 for one bird.
"The money people pay in, you never get your money back out. It's kind of more of an obsession now."
His winners all trace back to those eggs he was given by the great Harry Granville all those years ago and it is them that he now passes to his sons Thomas and Martin, with thanks to Gregg Brothers, McCandless, the West Belfast HPS, the Sydenham and Abbey Social HPS for their support over the years.
"Harry used his own ability. These young fanciers, its an obsession and they think they know it all."
What advice does Micky Kelly have for those wanting to take up his beloved sport?
"Try to understand the birds. Give them plenty of love. Money doesn't buy success."
