First recorded landing of an aircraft on the Aran Islands in March 1935.

While Aran islanders had experienced aircraft flying overhead, it wasn’t until March 1935 that one of these incredible machines touched down on the Islands. Many had seen the BREMEN defy gravity as it passed overhead on its historic transatlantic crossing in 1928.

Many in Connemara and the islands had also spotted the ill fated Saint Raphael in 1927 as it attempted an east west crossing to Canada.  All three on board, including it’s Princess owner, were lost. 

The stranded plane on an Trá Mhór. 1935. 

Promotional photo of a Klemm Swallow with a city gent as passenger. 

A view showing the cliffs of Inis Meáin with the Cliffs of Moher in the far distance. The present airport is at the bottom left. The body of water in the middle of three is An Trá Mhór with the tide in. It was out when the aviators landed in 1935.

While engaged in a cross country flying adventure, which involved a trip from Kildonan Aerodrome in Finglas to Killarney, the WW1 pilot Ernest Joseph Dease (1899-1982) from Celbridge and his copilot the famous adventurer Lillie/Lily Dillon (1880- 1963) from Listowel, decided to view on their way back, the spectacular cliffs of Moher. 

The two seater plane they were flying was the famous Klemm Swallow which Lillie had purchased in England for £695 earlier that year. She was 54 years old at the time and had secured her pilots licence just the year before. 

Ernest Dease is third from right at the opening in 1934 of the Aerodrome in Fermoy.
Photo is from Fermoy FB page and the photographer was Frank O’Brien. 

Both being of an adventurous nature, the honour of being the first plane ever to land on the Aran islands, proved too much a temptation. After landing at Oranmore they refuelled and headed as far as Casla before turning south for the islands. 

In 1935 the islands were still in a worldwide spotlight after the release of Robert Flaherty’s film MAN of ARAN, the year previously. 

Ernest was a flying instructor at the old Kildonan Aerodrome in Finglas and was also the chief instructor at the Cork Aero Club at Fermoy, where he had taught Lily to fly. 

The old Kildonan Aerodrome in Finglas which was a hive of activity in the 1930s. It closed in 1938 when a new airport was opened at Collinstown. (Dublin Airport)

Ernest was born in 1899 at Celbridge Abbey and like most of the early flying fraternity, came from a wealthy background. The opening of various flying clubs and Aerodromes made flying more accessible to the general public. 

Ernest’s love for engines had seen him with a serious head injury after being involved in a road accident in 1934.

Arriving over the islands, Ernest and Lily searched out a suitable place to land their little plane. At the time, the Klemm Swallow was being heralded as the safest plane in the world. It could land and take off at the incredibly slow speeds of 30 - 40 mph. 

A map from 1935 showing An Trá Mhör where the Klemm Swallow landed. 

An Trá Mhór at different stages of the tide. 

They spotted the vast expanse of sand of An Trá Mhór at Iaráirne, near the eastern end of the island. The tide was out and it must have looked very inviting from the air.

Although the plane belonged to Lillie, its likely it was being piloted by the vastly experienced Ernest who would have been sitting in the rear seat.

Touching down gently, all went well until the wheels began to dig in to the soft sand. The front tipped over a bit as the tail rose up, but luckily, settled back again with no damage done. 

There was huge excitement as a crowd arrived to get a look at the plane and those crazy enough to fly it. Some time later they managed to do the first ever take off from the islands and headed back to Galway.

The old saying of “leaving well enough alone” comes to mind when Ernest decided to return again to the island. This time he brought a friend who had a camera ready to record the adventure. He recalled later having an uneasy feeling in his bones about attempting a second landing. His bones were ignored.

Two things now contrived to turn this second ever airplane landing on the islands into the islands first ever airplane accident.

Firstly, An Trá Mhór being tidal, the sand was now a little softer in the touchdown area they chose. 

Secondly and possibly more importantly, the slim figure of Lillie Dillon was replaced up front by the famous artist and adventurer, George Pennefather (1905-1967) from Kilworth Co Cork. 

We are reminded that the correct loading of a plane and of a pony and trap, have certain things in common. Many years ago in Cill Rónáin, some visiting tourists thoroughly enjoyed the instruction from their jarvey of “let the fat ones go in front”. 

Surely a tale the good humoured Americans dined out on, for many years afterwards  

George Pennefather was a member of the Cork Aero Club like Lilie but unlike Lilie, he was six feet four inches tall and considerably heavier. 

Not surprisingly, the tail lifted as the wheels started to grip but this time the wooden propeller touched the sand, damaging the tip. There would be no second take off that day. 

Things were looking grim but the islanders came to their rescue and gently manoeuvred the plane to a safe spot where the incoming tide wouldn’t reach it. 

The village of Iaráirne overlooks an Trá Mhór and locals from this village and nearby Cill Éinne provided invaluable assistance to the stranded airmen. Just a few years previously two men from this village died from exposure after spending two foggy nights in a drifting currach. A third miraculously survived.
We covered this remarkable tale of survival a few years ago. HERE

Ernest was very impressed with how gently the delicate plane was handled by the islanders. This is really no surprise as these people and their ancestors knew how to take care of a flimsy currach on which their lives and their livelihoods depended. 

The aviators were also very grateful to the local Gardaí and the local schoolmaster, Mayoman Séamus P Ó Domhnalláin, who helped organise the safe keeping of their little plane. 

There was nothing left to do now but to walk about two miles to Cill Rónáin where a trawler ferried them to Connemara in what Ernest describes as rough seas. 

Four days later on Sunday March 31st 1935, Ernest and four friends returned with a new propeller. Two of the group were fluent Irish speakers and all were famous in their own right. 

The native speakers involved were the lawyer Seán Ó h-Uadhaigh (Woods) 1886-1959 and one of his sons, probably Robert. Seán was the man who defended the teenage Kevin Barry before his hanging in 1920. He had qualified as an electrical engineer before becoming a solicitor. His aunt Margaret Woods, was the wife of the GAA founder, Michael Cusack.

 His late son Robert would become a district justice and a target for the late journalist, Nell McCafferty. Many older Leitrim people, where some of our ancestors lived, also remember Robert. 

From the late Aer Arann pilot Hayden Lawford’s 2003 publication, IN GALWAY SKIES. 

Like all the others involved, Seán Ó h-Uadhaigh had been bitten by the flying bug and would go on to be the first chairman of Aer Lingus the following year. He is credited by some with influencing the Irish language branding of the new airline. 

Seán Ó h-Uadhaigh walking next to Eamonn De Valera in 1920.  From a Scoilnet publication on the renaming of Kingstown. Here

Also among the group who returned was another famous adventurer from those days, John Joseph (Joe) Gilmore (1900-1945) from Ardglass, Co Down. A gifted mechanic and engineer, Joseph was probably tasked with checking the plane out and replacing the propeller. At the time he was the top mechanical engineer with Imperial Airways in England. 

Joe Gilmore, who was part of the team which got the Klemm Swallow back into the skies. 
Seen here in Canada where he would die in a plane crash in 1945.

 Joe is credited with being the first person in 1933 to parachute from a plane in Ireland and was to die in Canada in an air crash in 1945. A brave man by all accounts who flew many rescue missions while stationed at Gander, Newfoundland.   

As the plane belonged to Lillie Dillon we are assuming that she was part of the group of five who arrived four days later to do the propeller replacement and take off from Iaráirne. Lillie is believed to have taken some photographs and composed a poem inspired by her hero, the Man of Aran lead, Tiger King. 

The grave of Coleman (Tiger) King with the vast expanse of sand in the background. Here is where the first ever aircraft landing on the islands took place in 1935.

After replacing the propeller they discovered that the ground was too soft to manage a takeoff. A large group of islanders was on hand to watch the goings on and they waded in and gently moved the plane to more solid ground which Ernest and Lillie had used previously. 

There was great praise for the way the islanders moved the plane over half a mile on sticky ground as they worked in relays of about thirty men. The locals had also tied the plane down in an expert fashion during its four day stay, using ropes and sandbags. 

It’s likely that Lillie reclaimed her position in the Klemm Swallow, bearing in mind what happened the last time she allowed two men fly her plane. 

After a successful take-off, the three remaining visitors returned to Cill Rónáin where the boat that brought them from Connemara was waiting to bring them back to the mainland. 

As a souvenir of their historic landing and in appreciation of the help given by the local schoolteacher, the damaged propeller was presented by Seán Ó h-Uadhaidh to the now long closed Scoil Náisiúnta Chill Éinne. 

The teachers residence and old school at Cill Éinne. 

We have enquired from some of its past pupils as to whether they ever saw the damaged propeller in their 1950s schooldays and so far, no luck. 

A Klemm Swallow laminated propeller. Usually made out of birch or spruce. 

There would have been many cold winters since 1935 with 1947 being particularly bad. It’s possible the old wooden propeller made one final journey to the heavens in the form of smoke from the chimney of the old school. 

By chance, the spot where the Pioneering aviators touched down is but a few hundred yards from where the present island airstrip is located.

Here is a recent Aer Arann plane taking off with its reflection passing over the area where Ernest and Lillie touched down in 1935.  HERE

The tide at an Trá Mór has come and gone twice a day since 1935 and has changed but little since Lily and Ernest picked it out as a likely landing spot for their little plane. 

The flight path for planes landing or taking off today goes within yards of where Ernest and Lily completed the first aircraft landing and take off on March 27th 1935. 

A grass landing strip was first constructed in 1970 when the island air service, Aer Arann, was inaugurated. 

The early days of aviation in Ireland were recalled in September 2013 when the IOLAR,  a restored version of Aer Lingus’ first ever plane paid a visit to the islands. 

The de Haviland landed and took off just a mere few hundred yards from where the Klemm Swallow did, so many years earlier. 

                              ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                               Lillie Dillon 1880-1963

This was not to be the last time that Lillie Dillon would land her little plane on a stretch of sand. In February 1937 while taking part in an air race in Egypt, Lillie and her copilot were forced to land in the Sahara desert when they had an oil problem. 

Luckily they were helped by a passing plane and Lillie took third place overall and was the first woman home. 

Having served as an ambulance driver on the front during the Great War, Lillie would again drive an ambulance in London during the blitz. 

She survived a plane crash in England in June 1937 when she and her male pilot made an emergency landing in a field and ploughing through a hedge. The plane was severely damaged. 

Lillie lived to be a great age after a lifetime of adventure which involved motor racing, skiing, flying and wartime service. She died in Australia in 1963 shortly after driving home from mass.

More information on the life of Lillie Dillon can be found in this fine article from HISTORY IRELAND

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                        Ernest Dease 1899-1982

The two world wars introduced the public to the concept of the dashing young pilot and Ernest was certainly well qualified to this role.

Ernest Dease with founder member Ruth Hallinan  at Fermoy Aeroclub in 1934. Ruth was another famous female pilot and is featured in Michael Traynor’s well researched book Petticoat Pilots.

As a teenager Ernest had served near the end of the Great War and signed up for the R.A.F. reserve in 1940 as WW 2 arrived. This Kildare native played a central role in introducing many to flying and was a flying instructor in different parts of the country. 

                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                    George Pennefather 1905-1967

Possibly one of the most  multitalented Irishmen of his generation, George is best known as an outstanding watercolour artist. He and his Australian wife Helen are credited with being the driving force which led to the opening of the Butler Gallery  in Kilkenny. 

A gentle giant, just like another gentleman aviator who followed in his slipstream, the late Hayden Lawford. Hayden was chief pilot along with Bill Wallace, when Aer Arann started in 1970. 

While George Pennefather was the first giant flyer to land on the Aran Islands, he wasn’t the last. This photo from the 1970s shows the late Hayden Lawford  beside the late Jimmy Coen, at Cill Éinne. 

Just a few months after landing at an Trá Mhor, George made international news when his brand new plane was mistakenly declared missing off the coast of Co Down after a flight from England.

After two lifeboats had failed to locate him and after Ernest Dease had called to comfort his mother at Kilworth, her phone rang with good news that George had landed safely, unaware of all the drama.

When George died suddenly in 1967 at the age of 61, his good friend and fellow artist, Tom Nisbet (1909-2001), listed his many talents. 

Apart from his flying and painting careers, George had founded an engineering works, operated a car dealership, started a dance band, designed and built a hydroelectric plant at his estate in Kilworth, built caravans, was a gifted photographer, a magician and had written about painting watercolours.  

And so we are almost at the end of our story about the first plane to land on the islands in 1935, but not quiet. 

In September 1966, after two men had landed in Cill Rónáin having rowed the Atlantic, some journalists decided to get a head start on the story and fly to the islands. 

Incredibly, they picked out the exact same spot where Lillie and Ernest had landed and even more incredibly, with the exact same result. 

Their propeller had to be replaced and we are hoping to gather some more information on that incident. 

We left it too late to enquire about the 1935 landing but there are plenty of people still around who remember the incident exactly sixty years ago. We look forward to finding out some more. 

( Many thanks to the numerous people who helped us in the writing of this article)

Michael Muldoon Aug 2026

Liner Tenders on Galway Bay

  1964 marked the arrival in Galway of the former Steam Tug Calshot. It’s main duty was to act as tender for Holland-America liners which anchored off Salthill or Ballyvaughan, the Port channel being too shallow for their approach. 

Previously known as the Steam Tug CALSHOT. 

Previous to this, liners had been served by both the old Aran ferry, S.S. Dún Aengus  and from 1958 by the newly arrived M.V Naomh Éanna. Former crew member Bartley Beatty remembers some difficult days with transfers in the bay as the gangway took on a life of its own. 

 

The Naomh Éanna was eventually adjudged to be unsuitable for the transfer of passengers in less than perfect weather so the Holland - America line purchased the more stable Steam Tug Calshot and had it refitted with diesel engines in Rotterdam, renaming it M.V Galway Bay. 

The Steam Tug CALSHOT at Southampton tending to the famous liner, QUEEN MARY. 

Previous to World War One, many an emigrant for the Americas had left from Galway on the famous Allan Liners but it would be 1927 before liners returned to Galway with the arrival of the North German Lloyd liner, S.S. Munchen on May 20th. The Munchen was piloted into Galway by the famous captain of the S.S Dún Aengus, Limerick man  Senan Meskell. 

A map of Galway Bay showing Galway town, Ballyvaughan and the Aran Islands. In bad weather, passengers arriving or leaving by transatlantic liner were transferred in more sheltered conditions just off Ballyvaughan. 

The return of transatlantic liners in 1927 would revive the melancholic practise where parents and families would gather at different points on the three islands, to wave a last goodbye to sons, daughters, sisters and brothers on board a departing liner, knowing that it was likely their loved ones were seeing the islands for the last time. 

A photograph taken in 1938 at Inis Meáin by the famous German folklorist Heinrich Becker. (1907-2001)

The photograph is part of the wonderful Becker Archive  held by the National Folklore Commission.  

By 1930 the number of liners calling at Galway had increased greatly and in order to keep them coming, the Harbour Board decided to buy an old Liverpool- Birkenhead steam ferry S.S. Lincolnshire, as a permanent tender in Galway Bay. This boat they renamed S.V Cathair na Gaillimhe. The cost was £5,250. 

The port of Galway was very busy in the 1930s as this was the age before mass air travel. A sign of things to come was Captain Meskell of the SS Dún Aengus, witnessing from the Aran Islands, the first East West flight of the Bremen,  passing overhead in April 1928 as it headed for Canada. The jet age was on the horizon.

The BREMEN and it’s crew of three about to leave Baldonnell on their famous 36 hour journey across the Atlantic. There were great celebrations on both sides of the ocean when they landed safely in Canada. 

In 1933 over a hundred liners visited Galway Port carrying nearly 10,000 passengers. 

Galway’s days as a liner destination would come to an abrupt halt with the onset of WW2 and the last liner to call until 1958 was a Japanese ship, HUSIMI MARU, evacuating 400 nationals on November 6th 1940.

Japanese children who arrived by liner in Galway Bay in November 1940. They had come from Lisbon and stopped off in Galway to pick up some U.K based refugees, escaping home to Japan by way of the Panama Canal. 

 Two American liners had previously done likewise for U.S. citizens wishing to get home as Europe descended into barbarism, the last being the  packed ‘SS Washington’ leaving Galway in July 1940.  

The upper and lower decks of the Cathair na Gaillimhe were crowded in 1940 with American refugees fleeing the war in Europe. They were being brought to an American ship anchored in the bay. 

With no liners calling, the ‘Cathair na Gaillimhe’ lay almost idle and in 1942 an attempt was made to sell it as maintenance costs were excessive. It would be six more years before she finally departed Galway, being towed to Cork by the Steam Trawler Ebro.

And so, with no liners calling, the need for a tender vanished until in the 1950s, an effort was made to entice the Ocean Liners back to Galway Bay. 

In 1958 the Holland-America line was persuaded to make a stopover at Galway which resulted in their S.S. Ryndam arriving during the races on July 31st. The first liner to enter Galway Bay since 1940. The recently arrived MV Naomh Éanna was praised for its work in ferrying passengers and baggage ashore. 

Among the passengers in 1961 who arrived in Galway Bay on the S.S. Maasdam on route to America, was Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife and child. Two years before JFK visited the city. The rest is history. 

The liner MAASDAM which was a regular visitor to Galway between 1958 and 1968. 
Along with its sister ship RYNDAM, it offered budget travel by sea. 
The RYANAIR of the 1950s

The very compact economy cabins on the S.S. Maasdam.  Albert J. Schoonderbeek BSc, MNI

The above photos are from a very informative BLOG  by Captain  Albert J Schoonderbeek, a former ships master with the Holland- America line. 

The liners RYNDAM and MAASDAM would continue to be serviced by the Naomh Éanna until the Holland-America line decided in 1964 to buy the old Steam Tug Calshot in Southampton and rename it MV Galway Bay. 

After being fitted with new diesel engines in Rotterdam, the MV Galway Bay headed for Galway on May 27th 1964.  Encountering fog on the way, it was late getting to Galway where big celebrations had been planned. It arrived on Tuesday June 2nd and a large crowd gathered to welcome it to Galway.

Among the crew who flew to Holland to bring the Galway Bay home was the late Tom Savage from Claddagh. His record here shows him being in The Hague in May 1964. Tom stayed with the boat until it finished up for the season and was delivered to Limerick.  
Many thanks to his son Gerry. 

Tom Savage can be seen here on the left  on board the old MV Naomh Éanna at Céibh Chill Rónáin in 1977. Tom was drowned near the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco in January 1994 when his trawler was in collision with a huge container ship. 
Also featured are fellow crew members Tony Quinn and Charlie Boyle in the white cap on right. 
(Photo by Raoul Lemercier) 

On the way home to Galway it had stopped off at Cobh to discharge the worlds largest model ship which occupied most of its deck. This was a two ton model of the liner S.S. Rotterdam which was over forty feet long. It was bound for the Horse Show at Ballsbridge in Dublin. 

Intercontinental Hotel Dublin, June 1964

The man appointed as Master of the Galway Bay was one of the town’s most famous mariners, the late Paddy Cantwell. Paddy was unable to take command for some weeks so the job of taking her back to Galway went to Captain Jack O’Sullivan of Limerick Steamship Company, whose brother Tim was the Galway Port pilot. 

Captain O’Sullivan with two of the four passengers who travelled with him from Rotterdam to Ireland. One of the others was the well known painter, designer and cartoonist Eppo Doeve. 

On Sunday June 6th 1964 the GALWAY BAY made her first visit to the islands when the local Galwegians Rugby club chartered her for what turned out to be a great day out. The Connacht Tribune carried a report of the club’s forward thinking. The club flag was hoisted on the Galway Bay and the President and Vice President, Jack Deacy and C.P. Crowley led the way. 

Not to be outdone, the local Galway Observer reported that the local Corinthians rugby club had visited the island just before them. They had travelled on a yacht belonging to Dave Fitzgerald of Tynagh mines and included their trainer Paddy Griffin with players Dave Fitzgerald, Don Armstrong and Mick Hackett. 

The two paper’s reporting, possibly reflected the sporting loyalties of the two reporters. 

The MV Galway Bay started her new role as Liner tender with the arrival of the S.S. MAASDAM on June 15th 1964, when 204 passengers arrived from New York. Most were Irish Americans returning to see their relations and their roots. 

From late in June 1964 when it began regular services until late September, the ‘Galway Bay’ carried over 7000 visitors to Cill Rónáin. 

As a result of efforts by Ballyvaughan Development Association and with support from Clare County Council, it was decided to recreate the days when steamboats called regularly at different ports on Galway Bay.

1940 marked the end of regular trips between Galway, Ballyvaughan and the Aran Islands. 

The S.S. Duras availing of a high tide to access the pier at Ballyvaughan around 1900

Access to Ballyvaughan is greatly governed by the tide and so it was that Captain Cantwell’s son Pat remembers being awakened at an ungodly hour on Sunday August 9th 1964 before the ‘Galway Bay’ headed for Ballyvaughan to catch the morning tide. She docked there at 6:50am and left for Cill Rónáin at 8:30am.

A postcard showing many aspects of the old passenger ferry, MV Galway Bay. 
From the extensive postcard collection of Mark at The Days of the MV Naomh Éanna, Facebook page. 

This was the first ferry to enter the port since the S.S. Dún Aengus had made her last call there in 1940. 

The day was perfect and a great crowd of 310 headed off for a two hour cruise to the islands. Among the passengers was Mrs Bridget Mullins from Ballyvaughan, who had travelled previously to the islands on both the SS Duras and the SS Dún Aengus. 

Conscious no doubt that the waters of Galway Bay are shared by two counties, the local Clare Champion newspaper carried a report on the only Clare member of Crew. Sinon would go on to spend time as Master of the MV Galway Bay before being appointed Harbour Pilot in Galway.

After getting mass in Cill Rónáin, most headed off with local jarveys for a tour of the island. However, some joined a large crowd of locals in the former schoolhouse to watch Galway defeat Meath in the All Ireland football semi final. The start of a golden era for Galway football. 

The Galway Bay arrived back in Ballyvaughan to catch the evening tide and docked at 7:pm. One passenger remembered once missing the tide on the SS Dún Aengus and having to spend six hours anchored before getting to disembark. 

As can be seen from this photo taken in May 2025, access to Ballyvaughan Pier is hugely governed by the tides. 

Paddy Cantwell got back to Ballyvaughan in time in 1964 but even if he had been forced to wait on anchor for six hours, his vast store of anecdotes, yarns and repeatable jokes, would have helped pass away the time. 

As well as liner tender duties and excursions to Cill Rónáin, the M.V. Galway Bay in the 1960s offered evening cruises on the Bay. Some of our readers may remember those trips. 

From 1964 until retired in 1986, the MV Galway Bay carried hundreds of thousands of passengers on the bay it was named after. 

Returning to her home port of Southampton in 1986, she reverted back to her old steam tug name of Calshot. 

CALSHOT back in Southampton. 

Despite heroic efforts by historic ship enthusiasts, the restoring of Calshot as a reminder of the great Ocen going liners, had to be abandoned. 

M.V. Naomh Éanna shortly before being cut up. 

As with the efforts of Mark Radford and others to preserve the old M.V. Naomh Éanna, both ships have now sadly been scrapped. 

The two old ships can be seen here at Galway dock in this nostalgic painting by the well known Galway based  artist, Derek Biddulph (1925-2008)

Michael Muldoon May 2026