Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 26 June 2014
“Technical Memories (Part 80) – A Symbolic Airport”
Continuing on from last week’s article and focussing on the development of an airport for Cork, the Cork Examiner in October 1961 profiled the development of the airport itself. In the late 1930s the idea of a sea plane base at Belvelly and its mudflats faded out of the picture. British Imperial Airways in conjunction with Pan-American Airways campaigned for a new seaplane base to be built at Southampton for a projected experimental air service between England and New York, via Bermuda. This dampened the hopes of a seaplane base in Cork Harbour. The Cork project was finally abandoned when Foynes was opened a few years later.
Meanwhile, in 1934 a group of aviation enthusiasts formed the Cork Aero Club and one of the principal aims of that body was the establishment of a city airport. In that year members surveyed various likely sites around the city and went into every aspect of the problem. They finally settled on Farmer’s Cross and in the same year, permission was granted by the Minister for Industry and Commerce for the use of Farmer’s Cross, as a regional airport. The Cork Aero Club could not finance the construction of an airport, which they regarded as a State or local government responsibility. In those years, the estimated cost of establishing an airport at Farmer’s Cross was £10,000. That airfield, however, was not then fully licensed because it did not have a sufficient runway to meet with commercial air regulation.
The years passed by with scheme after scheme proposed but nothing materialised. Foynes seaplane base prospered; Rinneanna Airport and Dublin Airport were opened but nothing was happening in Cork. The outbreak of the war in 1939 added to Cork’s wait. In the mid 1940s, it began to emerge that Farmer’s Cross was not considered suitable as the site for an airport in Cork. Ahanesk, which had been favoured in preference by the British experts several years previously, came into the news. This location of four to five hundred acres, just one mile west of Midleton, seemed to possess all the necessary requisites and preliminary survey work had been carried out by the County Council in the past.
The Department of Industry and Commerce sent observers to Cork to check on meteorological conditions over a period to determine from that aspect the most suitable site for an airport. They began their work at Ahanesk, avoided Farmer’s Cross and continued at nearby Ballygarvan. During the wait in the 1950s, the Cork Airways Company was established and they took over the Farmer’s Cross airfield from the Cork aero Club. In May 1948, the Farmer’s Cross airfield was officially opened by Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave. With a small set-up the airfield needed funding of £50,000 to extend to create a longer runway space. This finance was not forthcoming.
On 18 January 1954 the Department finally announced that the airport would be located at Ballygarvan, four miles south of the city. Three years later in September 1957, the land commission began to acquire land in the vicinity of Ballygarvan to the extent of approximately 420 acres. Once the formalities of taking over the land had been completed, contracts for the construction were signed and the work began. The top of Lehanagh Hill, six hundred feet above sea level, began to change its appearance as the bulldozers went to work levelling the site, skimming the tops and filling in the troughs. A million cubic feet of earth was shifted and the two 15-feet wide runways, one 6,000 feet and the other 4,300 feet, were laid on their twelve-inch deep bed of re-inforced concrete. A new concrete approach was also laid. The buildings began to be constructed, which included the control tower, offices, terminal building, restaurant, customs hall, and viewing balcony. The design and construction of the airport was entrusted to the Civil Aviation Section of the Department of Transport and power was also granted to them to manage the airport. The high quality graded aggregate and concrete products were supplied by William Ellis & Sons, Ballyvolane.
The first plane landed at Cork Airport on 12 October 1961. She was an Aer Lingus Fokker Friendship, piloted by two of the company’s senior captains, which was on a test flight. Captain Kelly Rogers noted to the press that because the airport was situated on a hill over the city, the approaches were very clear. The object of the flight was to test the route and the landing facilities at the airport, as well as to gain familiarity with the approaches.
Cork airport was opening officially on 16 October 1961 by the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass. He was also on the first plane to land at the new airport. He was greeted on his arrival by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Anthony Barry, TD and the Minister for Transport Erskine Childers. It was a busy day with operationally with twelve flight movements, six in and six outbound. Four of the planes landed were Aer Lingus and two were Cambrian Airways – these being the two operating companies.
To be continued…
Caption:
748a. Sketch drawing for Cork Airport terminal buildings, 1961 (source: Fifty Years have Flown, The History of Cork Airport, 2011)