About Westwings

Situated in Ballyglunin, the home of the famous 'Castle Town' train station featured in the Quiet Man (starring John Wayne!), WestWings Lofts is the official name of the Lofts of Mike Flannery, a native of Warrington, Cheshire, but living in Galway for over 30 years. Mike is a member of the Galway Racing Pigeon Club and has been racing birds since childhood. In 2008 Mike set up West Wings Lofts, the business name of the Galway One Loft Race, then only the second such race in Ireland. Since then the race has grown every year, from 500 birds in the first year to 750 in the second year, now the race hopes to attract 1000 birds as it enteres its third year!.

The Race is a family-run business, led by Mike (Snr) who runs the show and looks after the birds, but he's abley helped by his wife Maura, Son Mike (Jnr), Vinny, Sile (daughter-in-law), Siobhan (daughter), Dominic (son-in-law) and their growing number of grandchildren! The race is truely a family affair with Mike Jnr looking after the website and promotional material, helped in his efforts by Maura in the administration. Come race day it's 'all hands on deck' as the greater family chip in. For the last ywo years the race weekend has become a working holiday for Mike's brothers and sister-in-laws as they help get the food and entertainment organised and make sure everything goes to plan. Here's a picture with his two Brothers, David and Martin...

The Lofts for the One Loft Race is specially built to house the 1000 birds from youngsters to race day, complete with 24 hr security and rural location. The Loft is situated on Mike's farm in the fresh countryside, with easy access for visiting and training.

The loft is approx 15 miles from the Galway Airport and buses and trains run daily from all major towns and cities to Galway. There are also a number of local B&B's, contact details of which can be found on our links page.

About Galway

There are loads of websites about Galway and the west of Ireland, some listing things to do whilst others list events and festivals. First things first you'll probably want to go to the famous Galway Races to soak up the atmosphere and lose a few quid! youy'll find information about it here . There are plenty of tourism websites on offer to guide you whilst you're over here. One of the better tourism sites is www.galway.net listing hotels, shops and places of interest. The main site for tourist information is the offical (government run) Discover Ireland website which is well laid out and gives a definitive list of things to do in the west of Ireland. Galway has loads to offer with great restaurants, pubs and nightclubs, again you'll probably find most of them here . There are nightclubs and men's clubs and late bars and with the racing festival season and other festivals in the area you'll find Galway has a fantastic atmosphere anywhere you go!