Flying high is no longer just for elite race-goers

IT’S the sort of behaviour that once landed a bank manager in Dublin Castle, but if a tribunal ever asks me, I can’t remember why or how I ended up in a Celtic Helicopter flying to the Galway Races.

Seated to the left of the pilot Alastair on the Claddagh 1-2, we took off from Glenlo Abbey — the five-star hotel on the road to Connemara — becoming one of the thousands flying to the Ballybrit race course this week.

It’s been famously said that helicopters can’t fly — they’re just so ugly that the ground repels them.