Flying sky high in a man’s world: The story of Nancy Corrigan
Nancy Corrigan was a rare bird. She was born on Achill Island, Co Mayo in 1912. Her father, who was described as a “railway servant” in the 1911 census, died in a rail accident when she was a toddler. Her eldest sister left school at 10 years of age to help raise the family, who, bit by bit, left the island to immigrate to Cleveland, Ohio.
When Corrigan arrived in Cleveland in 1929 it was the sixth largest city in the United States and booming. She got a job as a “nurse-girl” to a rich family. Unbeknownst to her employers and her mother and sisters, she spent her savings as a nanny on flying lessons. They only found out about her flying bug when she broke a world solo flying record in 1932 after only 4.45 hours of training, a feat that made the front pages.
