Ireland and England and the blue skies of aviation history...and more

June 22, 4:31 PMDC Ireland & UK Travel ExaminerLaura Harrison McBride

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Alcock & Brown, Clifden, Galway (SP Tiley photo)

It has been a rough year in aviation, what with the crash in Buffalo, NY, and more recently the Air France crash…and never forgetting the miraculous “save” by Capt. Sullenberger on the icy waters of New York’s Hudson River.

It might make one afraid to fly, although the chances of problems are miniscule next to those all of us face on the highway day after day after day. Still, there are some airlines of choice based on their safety records, and, as it happens, those three airlines belong to three nations that enjoy a long history of aviation successes singly and together. Those three nations and airlines are the United States (Southwest), England (Virgin Atlantic) and the Republic of Ireland (Aer Lingus.) If you want to check the safety records of these airlines, visit here for Southwest statistics, and here for Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic.

Other ties include aviation historical sites to visit. Perhaps the most charming of these is in Clifden, Ireland, where John Alcock and Arthur Witten Brown, two Englishmen, landed their plane after the first-ever transatlantic flight in June, 1919. Unfortunately, the United States didn’t get into that act, just Ireland and England.

Still, an American had, actually, beaten Alcock and Brown across the Atlantic. Two weeks earlier, a United States Navy flying boat, Lt. Commander Albert Cushing Read as pilot (plus five crew), flew from the Naval Air Station in Rockaway, New York to Plymouth, England. That flight made six stops, however, and took 23 days to make the crossing. Alcock and Brown did it in less than the 72 hours required to win a prize offered by London’s Daily Mail for doing it.

But these days, lots of Americans can get into it by visiting Clifden. Visitors can commemorate the Alcock & Brown crossing by visiting a cairn four kilometres south of Clifden. Big deal? OK. But it was also the site of Marconi’s first transatlantic wireless station; from it, aviators transmitted news of their success to London. Two kilometres north of their landing spot, there’s a sculpture to their achievement or Errislannan Hill.

Not to be left out--since both aviators were British by birth--a memorial statue to them stands at Heathrow Airport in London.

The late American aviator/adventurer Steve Fossett replicated the Alcock & Brown flight in 2005, landing on the Clifden golf course rather than in a bog, as his predecessors had.

Whether or not you’re a flight buff, there are plenty of good reasons to visit Clifden, County Galway, Ireland. Among them:

• Alcock & Brown restaurant, Clifden; a bit modern outside, and inside as well. But the food is good, and the Irish hospitality is exceptional.
• The Twelve Bens, or mountains. By U.S. standards (Adirondacks, Rockies) they are not impressive. However, dedicated “fell runners” can cover all twelve in a day.
• Inishbofin, an island off Galway that is home to myriad artists and also offers the fort used by Irish pirate Grace O’Malley, known in Irish as Grainne (pronounced sort of like Grawn-ya, Anglicized as Grania or Grace) and the subject of an historical novel by Morgan Llewellyn.
• Kylemore Abbey, once a grand home known as Kylemore Castle. Purchased by the Benedictine order of nuns in 1920, it now houses wonderful gardens and the beautiful pottery made and sold by the order.

Soon: Kylemore Abbey slideshow.