A bitter row between Dublin and Washington over United States demands for landing rights at Dublin Airport in the early 1970s threatened Aer Lingus and the Irish government’s plans to develop the west of Ireland, then taoiseach Jack Lynch told US president Richard Nixon.
Washington had complained from the mid-1960s about the Irish government’s decision to force US airlines to land passengers at Shannon Airport, not Dublin as the airlines wanted as they preferred flying to capital cities.
In a frank letter to Mr Nixon in November 1971, Mr Lynch told the US president he needed to be forthright by stressing the government was “deeply concerned” about the landing rights row.
The Irish government allowed the two big US airlines, Pan American and TWA, to land and, just as importantly, to refuel at Shannon, but they were not allowed land at Dublin Airport. Instead, Dublin-bound passengers were flown onwards by Aer Lingus.
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In late July 1971, the US government said it would revoke Aer Lingus’s landing rights at JFK Airport in New York from August 1972 unless an agreement was reached with the government that dealt with the US complaints.
“In our view it is not contestable that the issues at stake are comparably greater for this country than for the United States,” Mr Lynch said, even though he accepted the US authorities believed the existing Irish/US aviation deal was unbalanced.
“The facts seem to be quite clear. For the United States, whatever the merits of its case may be, Dublin rights are a peripheral matter. The granting or refusal of such rights is a matter of minuscule importance to the United States economy,” he wrote.
The letter is included in the latest volume of documents on Irish foreign policy covering the years 1969 to 1973, which will be launched in Dublin on Monday by Tánaiste Simon Harris at the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In his letter, Mr Lynch said the consequences of ending the Shannon rule were “of much greater importance” to the Irish government and for Aer Lingus, which was successfully operating on the JFK route, than they were for the United States.
“The revenue implications for our small national airline are very considerable indeed. They have developed their existing traffic though great expense and effort. Their whole financial position would be imperilled,” he said.
The impact on the government’s plans to develop the west of Ireland if Shannon lost services would be even more significant, Mr Lynch warned, stating such plans and the future of Shannon Airport “would be placed at hazard”.
“Indeed, the underdeveloped state of the west made it one of the main sources of the flow of Irish emigrants to your great country. The Shannon area is now our greatest growth centre outside of Dublin,” Mr Lynch said.
The granting of Dublin landing rights for US airlines would have a significant impact “on the morale of all connected with the development of Shannon and the west”, he said, judging by the reaction from workers, politicians and the press.
The US threat to end Aer Lingus’ landing rights at JFK “has naturally caused the widest disquiet”, with “a great many people feeling that their jobs and their future are now in greatest jeopardy”, Mr Lynch told Mr Nixon.
However, the Lynch letter failed to stem the US demand, with Irish-American relations worsening in spring 1972 to the worst they had been since the second World War when Washington was annoyed with Éamon de Valera’s neutrality policy.
In 1973, Lynch lost power and was replaced by Fine Gael’s Liam Cosgrave, who allowed US airlines the right to land at Dublin. Pan American showed little interest in Dublin, while TWA flew the route only up to 1979.
