Field of Dreams not immune to threats

IN MANY respects Knock airport is the aviation equivalent of a Field of Dreams — the hit US film that saw a baseball ground being built in a remote Iowa cornfield to attract major league players.

Since Ireland West Airport (as Knock is now formally known) began commercial flights in 1985, it has successfully adopted the movie’s own “build it and they will come” philosophy.

The former parish priest of Knock, Monsignor James Horan lived to see his dream become a reality, happily declaring its official opening in 1986 to be “the greatest day in the history of Connacht for a hundred years”.