Fighter pilot's war heroics honoured with special rose

An Irish fighter pilot who shot down 32 planes in the Second World War was officially honoured today for the first time in his own country.

An Irish fighter pilot who shot down 32 planes in the Second World War was officially honoured today for the first time here.

Brendan Finucane from Rathmines in Dublin was the highest scoring pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF) when he died at the age of 21 in 1942.

At a ceremony in Baldonnell Aerodrome today, a specially commissioned rose was planted in the memorial garden beside the garrison church to commemorate the memory of the young Dubliner.

It was attended by members of the RAF Association and the Irish Air Corps.

“The Air Corps is very pleased to be able to accede to the request of the RAF Association and honour this exceptional airman, who first flew here at Baldonnell in an airshow in 1932,” said Brigadier General Ralph James.

Finucane was born in Rathmines in 1920 and attended O’Connell’s National School on Synge Street, where one of his classmates was the future GAA commentator Micheal O’Hehir.

He joined the RAF at the age of 17 when his family moved to England. He flew in the Battle of Britain as a Spitfire pilot but achieved his greatest success with a squadron of Australian fighter pilots. In a 51-day period in 1941, Finucane shot down 17 German Messerschmitt 109 fighter planes.

Finucane died in 1942 when the engine of his Spitfire plane was hit by a stray bullet on a raid over France. He attempted to crash land in the sea on his flight home over the English Channel but his plane sank like a stone.

Finucane’s funeral in Westminster Cathedral attracted more than 2,500 people. His uniform and medals are still held at the RAF Museum in Hendon, London.

But few people in Ireland became aware of Finucane’s achievements due to wartime censorship and the fact that, as an Irishman in a British uniform, he was an embarrassment to the official policy of neutrality.

Event organiser Maurice Byrne said:

“There was nothing at all to honour him in this country. I had read books and articles about him and I said I’d love to do something for him.”

At his home in England, Finucane’s, brother, Ray, said he was honoured by the remembrance ceremony in Baldonnell.

“I’m quite happy. It’s rather a compliment,” he said.