Cormac MacConnell: A silage pioneer who took to the skies

I saw Michael O’Ryanair strutting across the TV screens last week after one of his nags won another big race whilst his planes were filling the skies overhead and, quite frankly, I was green with envy for a while.

But then decided that I would ground him for a day or two by relating to all of you here the story of Jumping Johnny Woods of our clan who created world aviation history in Ireland long before the bold Michael was even the hint of a glint in his father’s left eye.

Come back with me to the townland of Tattymacall in my native Fermanagh away back in 1870 when local pressures and tensions around Tattymacall were weighing heavily on Jumping Johnny, a mighty Papish farmer surrounded by envious Protestant and Orange farmers who were jealous of his agricultural skills.