Paddy (pigeon)

Paddy (Pigeon number NPS.43.9451)^[1] was an Irish carrier pigeon awarded the Dickin Medal after being the fastest pigeon to arrive back in England with news of the success of the D-Day invasion, out of hundreds dispatched. He flew 230 miles (370 km) across the English Channel in four hours and fifty minutes,^[2] the fastest recorded crossing, and was awarded the medal on 1 September 1944, just under three months after the crossing.^[3] Paddy was trained by Andrew Hughes of Carnlough and is the only animal in Ireland to be awarded this medal.^[4]

Memorial in Carnlough, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

The medal citation reads,

"For the best recorded time with a message from the Normandy Operations, while serving with the RAF in June, 1944."

His medal was sold at auction for almost £7,000 in September 1999.^[5]

In June 2024, a memorial plaque to Paddy in Carnlough, County Antrim, which had become a minor tourist attraction, was destroyed in an act of "senseless vandalism". The Carnlough Community Association Group announced plans to replace the memorial.^[6]

See also

• List of individual birds

References

1. PDSA website Archived 2008-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, Dickin Medal awardees, retrieved 2006-02-26
2. Times Online, "Top 50 greatest sporting animals", retrieved 2008-04-26
3. Observer magazine Dickin medal awardees, retrieved 2006-02-26
4. BBC Your Place and Mine, "Paddy Power", retrieved 2008-04-26
5. BBC News website, "Northern Ireland Fancier flies away with pigeon medal", retrieved 2006-02-26
6. Mitchell, Elaine (10 June 2024). "Destruction of Paddy the pigeon plaque 'senseless'". BBC News. Retrieved 11 June 2024.