Ireland's balloon pioneer honoured

IRELAND'S EARLIEST contribution to aviation history has been belatedly recognised with the unveiling of a sculpture at the weekend to commemorate balloonist Richard Crosbie.

Crosbie became the first Irishman to fly when on the afternoon of January 19th, 1785, he took to the skies above Ranelagh in a balloon, watched by a crowd of more than 20,000.

The site of his launch pad is now Ranelagh Gardens, a small park in the south Dublin suburb, and it was here that councillor Mary Freehill, along with Irish Timescolumnist Frank McNally and Rose Doherty, a local resident and mother of former world snooker champion Ken Doherty, unveiled the statue yesterday.

As Ms Freehill and McNally explained, "a series of accidents" brought the event to fruition. In 2006, McNally wrote an Irishman's Diarycolumn on Irish contributions to aviation, but neglected to mention Crosbie.

Local resident Terry Connaughton wrote to the newspaper about the omission, saying it was a shame there was no memorial to the balloonist, in spite of an ongoing campaign for one.

Ms Freehill then contacted Mr Connaughton and helped to source funding through the public art levy available from a nearby housing development. And so the work by sculptor Rory Breslin was unveiled yesterday in front of an appreciative crowd and the theme from Star Warsplayed by a brass band.

McNally highlighted Crosbie's bravery in taking to the air barely a year after the Montgolfier brothers undertook the world's first manned flight.

He also paid tribute to the business acumen of this "heroic daredevil", pointing out that Crosbie sold thousands of tickets for his flight, for which he wore a robe of oiled silk lined with fur, a waistcoat, white quilted satin breeches, Morocco boots and a leopardskin cap.

"If Michael O'Leary could sell tickets to have people watch his planes taking off in Dublin airport, he'd have done so by now," he remarked.

The attendees included Mr Doherty and Helen Lamb (91) from Co Offaly, whose grandmother was a great-grand niece of the balloonist.

She described her relative's achievement as "one of the first great things to happen in this country", but added: "My only regret is that I've never actually flown in a balloon. My father disapproved."