The Countdown To Knock Begins

By Denis O'Brien

Knock International Airport lies deep in the heart of Ireland. It is situated on a peaceful hill in a western valley. The Ox Mountains surround the airport in a splendid necklace of color and the whole spectacle offers the viewer at first sight the very essence of Ireland.

With Ireland's other major airports like Dublin or Shannon, one doesn't really notice anything once one has stepped outside of the airport terminal. Urban sprawl, less so at Shannon than Dublin, greets the new arrival but at Knock it's different. Here you can see the whole country spread out before you in all it's glory. Here you arrive directly into Ireland's pastoral countryside setting; there's no need for grand navigation as you are already a hop skip and a jump away from exploring Ireland's soul as route N 17 lies waiting just beneath the airport.

And, America will soon discover that soul.

"There's a huge romantic thing with the United States," says the airports Managing Director, and Leitrim native Liam Scollan,

"When people fly in to this airport, they're flying into the type of region from a landscape point of view, that their ancestors left 150 years ago and they're coming exactly back into that area."

Ireland West Airport Knock, has twice in the last three years, been awarded by Chambers Commerce of Ireland, best regional airport in Ireland, for its 'value for money and efficiency", says Liam Scollan

"It was top in the network of low cost airports in Europe for the quality of its checking service and for its friendliness."

Formerly known as Knock Airport, the airport has of late become a major player in Irish aviation with the recent announcement that for the first time ever in this regional airport's history, it will operate with low cost carrier, Flyglobespan, Trans-Atlantic flights to America. Three services a week to JFK Airport New York, will commence on May 27th, and two more weekly services to Boston Logan International Airport, will start on May 30th.

The airport from its inception 21 years ago back in 1986, has normally operated flights to the UK and Europe, but now it will take the long haul journey across the Atlantic to the country that has been so good to many of the airports regions sons and daughters.

But little if anything is known about the story of this airport nestled in the west of Ireland.

Irish Americans flying into Ireland, know about Shannon and Dublin but what about this other airport that flies you into county of Mayo into the very heart of Ireland

So where did it all begin and whose idea was it to build an airport in seemingly the middle of nowhere in this western valley?

I visited with Liam Scollan recently to talk about the new Transatlatic Flights to America and explore a little further the story behind the airport.

Strange Figures

Even though the tale of Ireland West Airport Knock is relatively a new one, the history behind the airport's birth in the west of Ireland is very old. It goes back to a typical rainy evening deep in the heart of rural Ireland at Knock Parish in the year 1879. The land and people were poor and immigration was rife. That faithful evening something happened that could not be explained by human reason and subsequently would change the lives of 15 adults and children forever.

You see, one Miss Mary McLaughlin, came upon strange life-like figures that seemed illuminated by the gable end of the local Knock church but paid it no heed as she went about her business. Later upon returning with her friend Mrs. Margaret Byrne, she again saw the bright figures in the same place and so did her friend, Mrs. Byrne. In his fascinating book about Knock Airport entitled, 'On a Wing and a Prayer' by long-time local journalist , Terry Reilly, he recounts what Mary McLaughlin recalled later when asked about what she saw, "'On passing the chapel, and at a little distance from it, I saw a wonderful number of strange figures or appearances at the gable: one like the Blessed Virgin Mary, and one like St. Joseph; another a bishop [and] I saw an altar.'"

The word went out in the rural village and soon a total of 15 men, women and children of differing ages saw the same thing. They stood watching in the rain for up to two hours and they noticed that no rain fell on the place where the figures stood, it was dry to the touch. Had the witnesses seen an Apparition?

Immediately after an ecclestical commission was set up by the Archbishop of the region and it was found that the witnesses testimony of the event was trustworthy. Another study much later in 1936 would find the same result on re-questioning the surviving witnesses.

The Knock Shrine Society was set-up the year before with one, Judy Coyne the driving force behind the body in its efforts to get official blessing by Rome that an indeed an Apparition had taken place and that it should become a Marian Shrine like Lourdes and Fatima. Over the years it is believed, many pilgrims have been cured of ailments because of their having visited Knock Shrine.

The Holy Man Visits Knock Shrine

The Pope enthralled Ireland for a week as he traveled about the country saying special outdoor masses with over half the country, of a population of 3.5 million, traveling to see the Pope. It was a historic occasion, and indeed this scribe went also to see the 'holy man' but many forget that this first papal visit to Ireland was because of the Knock Shrine celebrations in the first place. So, Knock's importance as an historic and cultural, and indeed economic center in Ireland, must not go under-stated for the Shrine is today the biggest tourist attraction in the country, with 1.5 million visitors a year.

You see it's impossible to tell the story of the beginnings of Ireland West Aiport Knock, without first relating the story behind the shrine at Knock village, because they are interlinked historically and emotionally. The airport would hardly be there in the poor western region of Mayo without the Shrine's presence.

Judy Coyne the driving force behind the shrine promotion, wanted to improve facilities and infrastructure for visitors to the shrine as she outlined in a plan to the 1930s Mayo County Council for their consideration. Part of that infrastructural improvement was the idea of a 'grass strip' airfield to bring pilgrims from far distances to the Marian shrine. Coyne, as told by Reilly in his book, recalled of how she had written in her own book, 'Providence my Guide' about her plans in those mid 30's, "'Apart from the predictable issues like roads and water, they included plans for improvements in the rail system, and an airfield. With air travel in its infancy - a dream of the future for most people- that suggestion caused as much derision within its context as Knock Airport did in the 1980s," wrote Judy Coyne.

The straight shooting lady struggled against bureaucracy for years with little progress in improving the transportation system and getting the 'grass strip' airfield built, the central idea behind attracting international visitors to the shrine and region. Local needs were met but the airfield was only a dream in the poverty struck west of Ireland. But Coyne would have assistance in her quest and by the mid 60s a tornado arrived in the small parish of Knock in the guise of a new curate and the man that modern day Ryan-Air boss, Michael O'Leary and recent share owner of Aer Lingus, called, "A genius." "To build an airport where he built it without support and with no help for years, the guy was clearly a genius. He should have been running the country."'(T.O'Reilly).

Father Horan The Genius

This genius was Mayo native priest, Father and later Monsignor James Horan. He arrived in Knock quietly but when he became parish priest, a powerful position in early Irish society, he produced a storm of controversy as he wanted to supplant the 'grass strip' airfield notion, with an idea of building an international airport at Knock. Father Horan succeeded in his task and in May of 1986 it was opened as an airport. The first commercial flight was in 1985 but it didn't effectively run as an airport until the following year.

The dream became a reality and now 21 years later, there is an International Airport in place employing 146 people directly and operating to 25 different destinations into UK with charters into Europe, Canary Islands, Lanzarotti, Crete and Bulgaria and in two months time in late May, it will be off to America.

Talking about the initial genesis of the airport, Liam Scollan current managing director of the airport, is in no doubt as to the main driving force behind the airport's birth, "In the very first instance, there's no debate about who made it all happen and that was Monsignor James Horan," says the calm and clear heading airport boss.

"He was parish priest at Knock Shrine and he had a twofold vision, one was to set up an airport which would bring people to the shrine from all over the world, and secondly, for the airport to support the development of the region."

There had been talk even from the very beginning of the century says Mr.Scollan about an airport at Knock to cater to the pilgrims and Judy Coyne met with Father Horan and asked if he could get behind it. The parish priest and Administrator of the Knock shrine then got behind the airport idea.

"He took hold of that vision if you like and then went with it. He was the guy that was a visionary. He was an organizer, and a driver. Not only would he have expanded the airport, but also the shrine, he was a big picture man. He could see ahead and could see that the shrine itself had worldwide potential as you would have an airport beside it."

Horan was the son of a builder in Mayo and knew how to go about a plan of action in getting things done as he had learnt that from watching his father. Recounts Terry Reilly in his book, "as the son of a small builder, Horan moved from plan to foundation to construction in a very systematic fashion. As a boy he had helped his father mix mortar and now he had the power of the church behind him. In those days not too many people were going to cross an Administrator or parish priest when it came to developing a church or shrine."

However, developing an airport would be an entirely different challenge. But in later years as the battle lines were drawn for countrywide support in getting the airport off the ground, he had the ear of another native son of Mayo's, and who fortunately for Father Horan was the most powerful man in the country in the late 70s and 80s and that was the Taoiseach or Prime Minister the recently deceased, Charlie Haughey. Whom, despite abuse of power charges, has been credited with the fostering of investment into Ireland especially from American companies and that may have paved the way for the current booming 'Celtic Tiger.'

Haughey, whose Government in the early 1980s had supported the building of the airport in the region, said about Horan in Terry O'Reilly's book, that he "showed that clear insight which distinguishes leadership; he identified a regional airport as the key to the future"

The stories surrounding Father Horan are legendary. He had a businessman's approach to things it is said and before going to Knock he was a curate in the Mayo parish of Tooreen. He went to America in the late 1950s to raise money to build the parish hall called, Tooreen Hall, a mecca for dance go'ers at the time. Horan played the accordian and would go into the Irish bars on the east side of Manahattan to raise funds and he would come out later with a suitcase full of money and he would do this several time when he went on trips to New York.

He later built Toreen Hall and ran it very successfully into the bargain. Later at Knock in waiting on Government grants to come through for the airport he went to America and New York again to raise money as he had done many a time before. This time he went at the beck and call of the Irish Tourist board who asked him, in the late 1970s, during a world economic recession with the petrol or gas crisis raging and a big postal strike going on in Ireland at the time, to go to America and New York and convince Americans that the country was still operating.

Nowadays, New York is coming to Knock with Mayor Bloomberg's recent visit here to promote New York to the Irish in light of the upcoming transatlantic flights.

Part 2 next week - Continuing with more about the famous priest, the airport today, Mayor Bloomberg and Knock, and an exclusive chat with the airport's managing director Liam Scollan about the upcoming flights from Ireland West Airport Knock to New York and Boston.