Look up ... it’s been 75 years

Aer Lingus is celebrating 75 years in the air next Friday. Pól Ó Conghaile looks at the special role the iconic airline has played in the history of the state

IT WAS 75 years ago next Friday, on May 27, 1936, when Captain Eric Armstrong took off from Baldonnel aerodrome in a DH84 Dragon named Iolar (eagle). The pilot was carrying three dignitaries and two paying customers on an historic journey — Aer Lingus’s inaugural flight which went from Dublin to Bristol.

The plane was scheduled to depart at 9am. It had been blessed by the airport chaplain, and the small crowd in attendance included then-Minister for Industry and Commerce, Seán Lemass, and poet and surgeon Oliver St John Gogarty. Inauspiciously, Iolar was late departing for its two-hour flight, resulting in the two paying passengers missing their onwards train connection to London.