Northern Ireland bird breeder says 'soul destroying' Irish Sea border rules have killed his hobby

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Transcript

00:00 Welcome to my humble abode.

00:02 So David, how long have you been showing the birds for?

00:13 45 years, maybe more. I've kept birds from when I was 8 years of age.

00:18 And you've been taking them to shows all over the country?

00:25 Yeah, I've been to shows, some specialist shows in Dublin, 3 or 4 in Northern Ireland, 1 or 2 in Scotland and a couple in England.

00:32 One show in England we all attend every year, it's the pinnacle of the showing season.

00:39 It's the main show which we all go to.

00:42 Is it good crack?

00:44 The crack is just absolutely incredible.

00:47 All the guys know each other for many years and they know each other's families.

00:53 All the mishaps and everything comes out on the weekend of the show.

00:58 The banter is unbelievable.

01:00 The friendship is absolutely incredible.

01:04 But you've stopped going since the seaboarder arrangements came in?

01:09 Well, the seaboarder, it doesn't stop us attending the show, but it stops us taking part.

01:14 We can no longer bring our birds to the show because we can't bring them back.

01:19 We can bring them physically across, but we can't bring them back.

01:24 It's taking a risk of having the birds constantly taking off.

01:29 What's that feel like after all those years?

01:32 It is absolutely soul destroying because we've taken part.

01:36 I've been attending that show from 1981 and I've got to know all the people.

01:41 Taking part is the pinnacle of the year.

01:46 When you breed birds all year and you keep them all year and look after them

01:50 and try to achieve the best standard you can.

01:53 You want to go to the biggest show in the country and compete with the very best

01:56 because that's where the best all are at that name, the British Boarder Show.

02:01 We no longer can do that because of the new rules.

02:06 It's just killed us completely and it is soul destroying for most of the fellas.

02:13 I actually know a couple of guys who have stopped keeping birds because of the protocol.

02:19 It's killing a lifelong hobby and a lifelong lifestyle and it's really sad.