Maurice O’Donnell – Ireland’s One Loft Racing Mastermind (and the power of the Star Boy / Miss Maurice family)
If you follow one loft racing, you already know the name: Maurice O’Donnell of Dungarvan, Ireland. Quiet, direct and obsessed with performance, Maurice has built a family of pigeons that now dominates leaderboards from South Africa to Thailand, Portugal, Mexico and the USA. Race organisers and fellow fanciers routinely describe him as one of Ireland’s top – if not the top – one loft race breeders.
Let us introduce Maurice, the story behind his pigeons, and – crucially – the Star Boy / Miss Maurice dynasty that sits at the heart of his worldwide results. It also sets the stage for a forthcoming select online auction in the UK, where fanciers will have a rare opportunity to buy into this proven global-winning gene pool.
From Dungarvan to the world stage
Maurice’s base is in Dungarvan, County Waterford, on Ireland’s south coast. It’s a long way from the big-money auction rooms and sun-baked final races of Pattaya and South Africa, yet from this relatively modest set-up he has bred some of the most important one loft racers of the modern era.
Over the last decade Maurice has quietly focused on one thing:
Breeding pigeons that can win – repeatedly – in the hardest international one loft races.
That focus has taken his birds into all the major arenas:
• South Africa Million Dollar Pigeon Race (SAMDPR)
• Pattaya International One Loft Race (PIPR)
• Golden Algarve Million Euro Race & other Algarve one loft events
• Victoria Falls, Hoosier Classic, Mexico and Dubai one loft races, and more via his customers and partners. (pipa.be)
He’s not just shipping a token entry either. At races like the Algarve Golden Race he’s known for sending a strong team and still clocking deep into the result sheet when conditions are brutal. In one such Algarve final he reported 23 birds home with 8 in the prize money, including the first two Irish birds, and noted that no other loft from any country matched that combination of returns and prize positions. (odonnellpigeons.com)
Maurice also acts as an agent and ambassador for major races – for example introducing other fanciers to the Algarve Golden Race and helping them succeed with his bloodlines
Ends: 21 December 2025 20:00 See the auction here: https://www.northernpremieronlineauctions.com/shop/auctions/maurice-odonnel/maurice-odonnel-part-1/
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