Shannon Airport -- a history: A unique story of survival

By Valerie Sweeney

Comprehensive history of how a swampland at the estuary of the river Shannon was transformed into a vital link for transatlantic aviation. We trace developments from the golden age of the Flying-boats to the TWA Clippers all the way to modern jumbo jets. There are also sections on the initiatives in tourism and industrial development which depended on the airport, and on the historical events in which it featured.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Valerie Sweeney
• Release date: Sep 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781783017102

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REVIEWS

PART ONE

THE AFTERMATH OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

CHAPTER 1

SHANNON AIRPORT SUFFERS AFTER TERRORIST ATTACKS

September 11, 2001, will stand out forever in the minds of all those alive at the time. That was the day that two hijacked airliners destroyed Manhattan’s Twin Towers World Trade Center in New York, changing the city’s skyline forever.

Another two hijacked airliners also crashed on that day. One hit the Pentagon in Washington. The other, which was meant to crash into the White House, was diverted by a heroic attack on the hijackers by some of the passengers, resulting in the aircraft crashing into wasteland in the state of Pennsylvania. All on board were killed.

Over 4,000 people lost their lives in those terrorist attacks, which have been allegedly linked to Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist group, the Al-Qaeda network.

The site, named Ground Zero, is to be transformed into a permanent memorial to all those who perished in the atrocities.

As well as the September 11 attacks, the ensuing war in Afghanistan, supported by the World Alliance against Terrorism, hit the world’s airlines drastically. Many intending passengers cancelled their plans to travel by air. The war also caused Americans to cut back drastically on travel abroad. Airlines and airports immediately began to suffer.

The Irish airline, Aer Lingus, was badly hit on its transatlantic and other routes. This resulted in drastic cut-backs and some staff redundancies. The airline also cut back on its services world-wide and implemented a tough restructuring plan which has since proved very successful.

Almost every other major airline was forced to implement redundancy plans. Several American airlines would have gone bankrupt if the United States Government hadn’t come to their aid.

When airlines cut back on services, airports also suffer. Shannon International Airport is no exception. As part of its restructuring plan, Aer Lingus cancelled its daily commuter service to and from Dublin. Many routes by other airlines were also cancelled and several major airlines ceased their entire operations into Shannon.

Business interests in the area claim the cancellations, which followed the September 11 disaster, lost Shannon Airport an estimated 10,000 passengers a week.

Shannon Airport was just beginning to rally from the effects of September 11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan, when, in late 2002, the American and British Governments threatened war on Iraq. The two Governments claimed to have intelligence reports indicating that Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, which, they claimed, could threaten world peace.

In March 2003 the American and British Governments decided to wage war on Iraq, even though the war was not supported by the United Nations.

The decision to go to war without UN approval resulted in large protest rallies against the war.

For many years American troop carriers have been refuelling at Shannon Airport on their way to various maneuvers around Europe and the Far East. The troops wait in the airport’s duty-free area, while the planes are being refuelled.

During the stopovers the troops spend large amounts of dollars in the duty-free shop. The refuelling stops not only help bolster the airport’s duty-free sales but also increase the airport’s revenue through landing, fuel and catering charges.

American troop carriers continued to refuel at Shannon on their way to the war zones in Iraq. Peace activists saw this as a contradiction of the Irish Government’s declared stance of neutrality.

Shortly after hostilities commenced in Iraq, a group of anti-war protesters set up a peace camp on the main road to Shannon Airport.

Protesters against the war organised several protest marches at Shannon. Anti-war protesters travelled to Shannon Airport from various locations around the country.

Some activists from the Shannon peace camp succeeded in scaling the airport’s perimeter fence and caused an estimated million dollar’s worth of damage to an American aircraft. The damage to the aircraft got world-wide media coverage, with the result that many intending passengers cancelled their flights to Shannon.

No sooner had Shannon started to recover from the lost business after the protests about the Iraq war, than the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus broke out. The previously unknown virus first broke out in China then in Hong Kong. People were advised not to travel to the areas affected in order to prevent the spread of the disease.

The virus subsequently spread to Canada and the World Heath Organisation advised intending passengers not to travel there. This affected Canadian charter business to and from Shannon Airport.

The uncertainty regarding the seriousness of the virus and the number of immediate deaths caused by it, resulted in world-wide panic. Figures released by the World Health Organisation in June 2003 revealed that 8,459 probable cases of SARS had been detected, with 805 deaths. By that date, the outbreaks were said to be under control and passengers were told they could resume flying to the affected areas. But, despite assurances that the outbreaks had been confined to the three affected areas, thousands of people cancelled planned holidays to many destinations — which again hit the world’s airlines and airports.

CHAPTER 2

NEW THREAT TO SHANNON

A new threat to Shannon Airport’s survival is the proposed Open Skies policy, favoured by the European Union and the United States. To the consternation of those living in the catchment area of Shannon Airport, the Irish Government is not objecting to the concept of Open Skies.

Until now (2004) Shannon’s transatlantic status has been protected by the bilateral agreement of 1993.

This stipulates that a similar number of flights to and from the United States must land at both at Shannon and Dublin airports.

Under the newly proposed Open Skies policy this agreement will be terminated.

Before 1993 Shannon’s transatlantic status was protected by the controversial stop-over agreement, where every {light to and from the US to Dublin had to stop at Shannon. The agreement was reached on 3 February 1945 between the Governments of Ireland and the United States.

This stipulated that from 15 February 1945 all eastbound traffic from the United States to Ireland and the countries beyond, via intermediate points, shall stop at the Shannon Airport as the first European port of call, and all westbound traffic on the same route shall stop at Shannon.

In 1992 the threat of the removal of the Shannon stop-over agreement by the Irish Government caused huge upset in the Mid-West region. Several influential lobby groups were immediately set up to lobby for its retention. In March 1992 a rally was organised to protest against its removal. Tens of thousands of people from Clare, Limerick, Galway, Tipperary and Kerry converged on the streets of Limerick for the massive protest rally. Impassioned pleas were made from the rostrum, outlining the dire consequences for the region if the stop-over were to be removed.

In spite of the heart-felt emotion expressed and the huge numbers at the rally, the protest failed to achieve its aim. However, the massive protest and the influential lobby groups did play a large part in achieving the new bi-lateral agreement of 1993.

Many people working at Shannon Airport fear that the proposed Open Skies policy could severely damage Shannon’s transatlantic business. Surveys have suggested that where Open Skies policy exists in other European countries, international carriers have chosen to operate their routes directly into the capital cities.

However, in spite of all the recent setbacks, the morale at Shannon Airport remains high. Over the years, it has been when times have got tough that the unique spirit of the Shannon workforce has come to the fore

The story of the setting up of Shannon Airport and its survival is unique. Since its inception in 1945 many doubts have been cast on the future viability of the airport. But each time Shannon Airport has been under threat, the loyal workforce has responded with an imaginative rescue plan.

The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the Sars virus and the proposed Open Skies policy have been recognised as the most serious threats to the airport’s survival to date. Another uncertainty currently hanging over Shannon is the planned break-up of Aer Rianta, the semi-State body currently responsible for running the airports at Dublin, Cork and Shannon.

The then Fianna Fáil Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, announced plans to break up Aer Rianta into three separate companies. The new plan would give each company responsibility for the operation and promotion of its own airport.

Many business people in the catchment region of Shannon believe this autonomy will be good for the airport.

Under the proposed restructuring plan, each one of the three airports, operating under a board of directors appointed by the Minister, was set to be responsible for achieving its own growth. The Minister also proposes that debts which have accumulated at Shannon Airport will be transferred to Dublin Airport before the restructuring process begins.

While many of the legalities still have to be ironed out, as well as consultations with the many trade unions involved, Minister Brennan is optimistic that this new initiative will commence this year (2004).

But Shannon’s history of survival against the odds is an amazing story. It has earned the airport the deserving name of Shannon, the Airport that refuses to die. Shannon Airport has been credited with a historic series of ‘firsts,’ which were the result of the imaginative ideas implemented each time the airport’s survival was threatened.

The first duty-free shop in the world was established at Shannon, followed a few years later by Ireland’s first transatlantic mail-order company.

Ireland’s first hotel and catering college was also founded in Shannon. Bunratty Castle was restored and the first medieval banquets were promoted as a result of ideas emanating from the Shannon workforce. Then came the first tax-free industrial zone in the world, which led to the building of Shannon Town, the first new town in Ireland in the 20th century, where the first Comprehensive School in Ireland was established.

Ireland’s first Regional Development Authority, Shannon Free Airport Development Company, was also set up to attract industry to the Shannon Industrial Free Zone.

Shannon Airport was also the first airport in Europe to offer a US Immigration Pre-Inspection facility and Shannon Airport personnel initiated the first historical barter of airport services for oil, resulting in the setting up of their own fuel farm. Shannon Airport personnel have also been involved in setting up duty-free shops in all corners of the world. Experts from Shannon have also been instrumental in setting up other tax-free industrial zones.

The world-wide implementation of many of the pioneering ideas which came from a group of dedicated people determined to save their unique airport on Ireland’s south-west coast, has added to its unique story.

Terrorists Attack the Twin Towers. Sept 11th, 2001 – Getty Images

The protest rally against the removal of the Shannon stopover, in March, 1999.

Pic J Kelly. Clare Champion

The funeral procession at the protest rally against the removal of the Shannon stopover, in March, 1999

Pic J Kelly, Clare Champion

PART TWO

IRELAND PLAYED ITS PART IN AVIATION HISTORY

CHAPTER 1

ALCOCK AND BROWN LAND IN CLIFDEN

The famous British pilots, Alcock and Brown, first flew west to east across the Atlantic on 15 June 1919. Capt. John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown took off from St. John’s Island in Newfoundland and set course for Europe. Their intention was to land in London.

Their aircraft was a converted Vickers Vimy bomber, powered by two Rolls-Royce engines and capable of carrying enough fuel for 20 hours. The plane had been dismantled in England and shipped to Newfoundland, where it was reassembled.

The pilots took off for London on June 14 1919 at 2 p.m. In spite of favourable weather forecasts they found themselves flying into torrential rain half way across the Atlantic. The rain poured into their open cockpit. Early on the morning of 15 June their aircraft nearly stalled as they attempted to climb higher to get out of the wind and rain.

Suddenly they spotted several pieces of land. These were the Aran Islands, just off the west coast of Ireland. Because of the ghastly weather conditions they considered it too dangerous to attempt to continue to London. They decided to land in the first suitable field they could find.

They touched down in bog-land at Derrygimla beside the Marconi radio station in Clifden, Co. Galway. The soft boggy ground was unable to support the weight of the aircraft, which pitched forward on its nose. The aircraft was badly damaged, but, fortunately, the two pilots escaped with only minor injuries.

They made their record-breaking crossing in 16½ hours and covered a distance of 1,700 miles. Their remarkable feat won them a prize of £10,000 Sterling for being the first fliers to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

On 15 July 1919 at Buckingham Palace, King George V invested both fliers as Knight Commanders of the Order of the British Empire to mark their achievement.

On 20-21 May 1927 Col. Charles Lindberg made his epic record-breaking west-to-east solo flight from New York to Paris in his famous Spirit of St Louis aircraft. His average speed was 107 m.p.h. and his amazing test of endurance lasted 33½ hours. He flew a total of 3,300 miles.

He had flown over Valentia Island, off the coast of Kerry. He was later quoted as saying: I saw the green hills of Ireland and knew that I had hit Europe on the nose. Ireland is one of the four corners of the world. I’ve never seen such beauty before, nor fields so green.

While being interviewed in Paris he was asked whether it would be possible to fly the Atlantic from east to west? He declared that it would be impossible because of the treacherous headwinds. In spite of his prediction there were two failed attempts at the perilous east-to-west crossing later that year. In July 1927 two German pilots, Capt. Herman Koehl and Baron Ehrenfreid Gunter von Hünefeld, took off from Dessau in Germany, flying a German Junkers W 33 aircraft, D 1167, called The Bremen. They were forced to turn back due to unfavourable weather conditions on the Atlantic.

A month later Col. James Fitzmaurice, an Irish Air Corps pilot, joined up with Capt. Robert Mcintosh of Imperial Airlines and made a second attempt at the crossing.

Their plane was a large Fokker monoplane named Princess Xenia. They took off from Baldonnell, but wind and weather conditions forced them to turn back just off the Irish coast. They managed to land safely in Co. Kerry.

CHAPTER 2

THE HISTORIC FLIGHT OF THE BREMEN AND AN IRISHWOMAN’S RECORD-BREAKING ACHIEVEMENT

Col. James Fitzmaurice was a Royal Flying Corps veteran of World War I. He was firmly convinced that the crossing from East to West could be achieved. The following year he learned that Baron Hünefeld and Capt. Koehl were planning another attempt in The Bremen, this time from Baldonnell, so he offered to team up with them. The Germans accepted his offer and after weighing all the pros and cons the three pilots felt they had enough experience between them to tackle the dangerous crossing. They fully understood the risks they were taking by attempting the crossing against the prevailing winds.

They took off on their historic attempt on 12 April 1928. Before leaving Baldonnell in The Bremen they ambitiously filed a flight plan to New York. They had no heating system in the aircraft. They later told reporters how they had to fight an inch-by-inch battle against the high winds, which had cut their speed to 100 m.p.h.

Col. Fitzmaurice was a brilliant navigator, but, as the crew breathed sighs of relief when he correctly indicated that they were nearing the Canadian border, that relief soon turned to horror when they realised that ice was starting to build up on the wings. This was a very dangerous situation as it threatened the stability of the aircraft. In the freezing temperatures Col. Fitzmaurice bravely attached a rope around his waist and secured it to the inside of the cockpit. He climbed out on the wings and, armed only with a small pickaxe, chopped away at the ice as it formed. His heroic act saved the aircraft and crew from certain disaster.

After an epic 36½ hours the crew landed safely in Quebec. Their magnificent accomplishment was celebrated throughout the world.

Later, two million people turned out in New York to greet them and they were all awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by US President Calvin Coolidge, becoming the first foreigners to receive that honour. As they made their triumphant return to Ireland, they were greeted with cheers and ticker-tape parades in all the cities they visited. On their return to Dublin, they were given the Freedom of the City by William T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, and a dinner in their honour was held in McK.ee Barracks, the Irish Army H.Q. The Chief of Staff, Major-General Hogan, presented each of them with an Irish sword.

Their heroic east-to-west crossing had firmly established Ireland as a transatlantic stepping-stone to North America.

An Irish woman also made aviation history. Sophie Pierce was born in Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick. In early 1928 she created aviation history by making the first solo flight between South Africa and England. In doing so, she also recorded the first solo flight between the South African Cape and Cairo.

The trip took her several weeks, as she had to stop en route for several refuelling and technical stops. She made her record-breaking flight in an Afro Avian 111 aircraft.

Sophie Pierce began her academic career studying agriculture in Dublin, as she intended to become a farmer. She later moved to England to continue her studies and became interested in flying. She enrolled in a flying school and became the first woman in Britain to qualify for a ‘B’ licence which entitled her to carry passengers for hire or reward. At that stage she decided to make her career in aviation.

She married Sir James Heath a few months after her record-breaking flight in 1928. Soon after her marriage she created another record, this time for reaching a height of 12,833 feet in a seaplane.

A few years later, in Cleveland, Ohio, Sophie’s flying career came to an end when she was involved in a serious crash, from which she never fully recovered. In the intervening years she was employed as a pilot with KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline, regularly piloting their passenger flights on the Amsterdam/London route. Sophie sadly died in a road accident in London in 1938, aged 43.

Her magnificent accomplishments are commemorated in her home town of Newcastlewest, where a commemorative plaque has been erected outside the house where she was born. Her accomplishments are also remembered at Shannon’s Oakwood Arms Hotel, where all the main rooms have an aviation theme.

The main lounge is named Sophie’s Lounge and the main banqueting hall is The Pierce Suite. There is also a very interesting pictorial aviation history exhibition along the hotel’s main corridor.

CHAPTER 3

COMMENCEMENT OF IRISH PASSENGER AVIATION

In 1930 Hugh Cahill and his friend, J. C. Malone, both from Glasnevin in Dublin, pioneered Irish passenger aviation.

They initially bought two aircraft, a Mark II De Soutter (EI-ADD), and a Gypsy Moth, (EI-AAK). After much consideration, they put the name Iona National Air Taxis And Flying School on the fuselages.

The planes were registered in the name of Hugh Cahill, Prospect Villas, Glasnevin, Dublin. The air-taxi service began operations in September 1930, initially from Baldonnell and later moving to a purpose-built airstrip, called Kildonan Airfield in Glasnevin.

In February 1930 Iona National Air Taxis and Flying School was formed into a limited company under the name of Iona National Airways Limited.

The De Soutter Mark II aircraft was sold and replaced by two Gypsy Moth aircraft, which were registered on 2 June 1931 as (EI-AAF) and (EI-AAG).

In 1932 the late Marjorie Bayley-Butler was a pupil of the school in Kildonan. She obtained her Pilot’s ‘A’ licence in January 1936. A few years later she entered the order of the Sisters Of Charity and took her religious vows. In her memoirs she remembers a De Haviland Moth, (EI-APP), registered to the company on 20 July 1932, which could carry three passengers and a pilot.

The only navigational aids were the compass and map reading, she wrote. These pioneers of commercial aviation were taking their lives into their hands when they took off on charter air-taxi services from Ireland to the U.K. The procedure was to contact the Baily and Holyhead lighthouses before take-off and advise them of the approximate time of arrival, then contact them again on arrival, so that the lighthouses could report the safe arrival of the aircraft back to Iona.

During the Eucharistic Congress of 1932 Iona hired and operated a Junkers aircraft, capable of carrying six passengers. Iona also undertook the first mail and passenger service between Dublin and Berlin that year.

Aer Lingus subsequently started operations from Baldonnell in 1936. The first pilot with Aer Lingus was Capt. E.O. Armstrong, who was originally a pilot with Iona Airlines.

The square wooden mail-box, inscribed First Air-Mail and Passenger Flight. Dublin-Berlin 1932, has since been carried by Aer Lingus planes whenever a new service is opened. That historic box, first used by Iona National Airways in 1932, has since travelled hundreds of thousands of miles.

Monument erected by Aer Lingus in 1979 near the Alcock and Brown Landing Site at Derrygimla, CIifden, Co. Galway

Picture: John Brophy

Plaque unveiled by Anne Alcock in 1994.

Picture: John Brophy

Alcock & Brown Hotel in CIifden. Co. Galway

Picture: John Brophy

Above: Plaque erected at the radio station at Derrygimla where Alcock and Brown landed.

Right: Marconi Plaque on the main street in Clifden.

Pictures by John Brophy

Col James Fitzmaurice, the Irishman who took part in the first east-to-west Transatlantic flight of The Bremen in April, 1928.

Pic Photographic Section Air Corps, Baldonnell

Brig. General B.