FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Shannon Airport was an exotic place at the end of the second World War with its stream of interesting travellers passing through, as Quidnunc (probably Patrick Campbell) explained in this Irishman's Diary.
IN THE past week, I have gone through Shannon Airport with a fine-tooth comb. I have seen flying-boats, and radio stations, and miles of concrete runways. I have read an edition of the New York Daily Mirror, on the day after its publication.
I have seen Dr. Wang Hua-cheng and Dr. Yang Yun-chu, Chinese delegates to the War Crimes Conference, arrive at Rineanna, on their way to London from New York. Dr. Wang Hua-cheng was given a health form to fill in. The form said: “Mention any illness or abnormal symptoms (other than ordinary air-sickness) from which you suffered during the last 21 days.”
Dr. Wang Hua-cheng, speaking with some precision, said: “My only abnormal symptom is one of extreme hunger. Shall I put that in?”
I have seen poorly dressed American housewifes [stet] come off the flying-boats at Foynes; and silent young American sailors going on board. I have seen a British Wing-Commander, with a magnificent moustache, and a double row of medals, come ashore, followed by an R.A.F. corporal of about twenty, looking lost and far from home. There were British naval officers, and stout American business men, carrying shoulder flashes on their uniforms reading “Technical Consultant”. There were American Army officers with strange raw-hide, rubber soled boots. But let us have this matter attended to in an orderly fashion.
Shannon Airport consists of the sea-plane base at Foynes, twenty-four miles from Limerick on the southern shore of the estuary; and the land base at Rineanna, sixteen miles from Limerick, on the opposite side of the river. The sea-plane base is used by three companies – the British Overseas Airways Corporation, Pan-American Airways and American Export Airlines. The first two companies use the Boeing flying-boat; the third the smaller, but faster, Sikorsky ship.
Only one type of plane uses Rineanna – the American Douglas Dakota; but these planes are run by the British Overseas Airways Corporation. The Dakota was originally designed as a general transport job for the American Air Force. It is capable of carrying a jeep, light artillery, or parachute troops. At the moment , Dakotas are dropping food by parachute to the people of Holland.
The organisation of Shannon Airport is a highly complex business. New people, with unexpected jobs, keep on intruding themselves into the general pattern, just as everything seems to be settling down.
The airport – which must always be taken to include both Foynes and Rineanna – is the property of the Department of Industry and Commerce. The representative of the Department is Colonel Patrick Maher, who is known as the Station Manager. Colonel Maher came to Foynes on December 1st, 1942. Up till then he had been Director of Artillery in the Army. He was also in charge of the delicate negotiations involved in the British withdrawal from the ports.
I asked Colonel Maher why an artillery expert should be station manager of an airport, and Colonel Maher replied: “I have never been able to find out.”
But Colonel Maher, who is tall and lean and grey-headed, has a manner so frank and friendly that he can create peace from the most unpromising situations. In the beginning there was considerable rivalry between the two American companies. And the people of Limerick were not enthusiastic about welcoming the crowds of foreign technicians who descended upon them. Colonel Maher straightened out these matters in a manner so delicate that nobody can remember now what the cause of the trouble might have been.
Colonel Maher, and most of the other members of his staff wear a new . . . uniform. The uniform was designed – for some obscure reason – by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. It is alleged to have involved Colonel Maher in a situation that strained even that diplomatic officer’s diplomacy.
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