.................. How the changing fortunes of Knock Airport has turned politics locally and nationally on its head.

IT’S remarkable how politics, politicians and political parties can turn full circle.
The case has been tellingly made in a week in which Transport Minister Leo Varadkar assured Knock Airport of retaining critical operational funding despite it being withdrawn from the facilities at Galway and Sligo.

Those with long memories in these parts were swift to point out that a previous holder of Deputy Varadkar’s portfolio, the late Jim Mitchell, was instrumental in advance of the 1984 budget of ensuring capital funding of £13.5 million required to complete the east Mayo project was not sanctioned.
Mitchell, in fairness to him, was not a voice in the wilderness at a time when a Fine Gael/Labour Party government was coming under increasing pressure due to cuts in basic health care.
Shortly before the administration in question had come into power in November 1983, Mayo FG Deputy Enda Kenny, then opposition spokesman on Gaeltacht affairs, demanded the money needed to complete the Knock scheme should be directed to the building of a new £60 million hospital in Castlebar.    
At that stage, the first phase of the airport, which involved the construction of a runway and apron, was nearing completion and the promoters, the Connaught Regional Airport Development Company, was seeking an addition £5 million to have the strip tarmacadamed and a terminal building constructed.
“If there is money available, the hospital must get priority. I am not denying the airport company the right to look for extra finance. But the £5 million which they have asked for would go some distance in putting the new hospital into shape,” he insisted.
Politically, of course, Knock Airport had started out as a monument to the Fianna Fáil party as much as a glowing testimony to the drive and ingenuity of the late Monsignor James Horan, the legendary parish priest of Knock.
Those who attended the turning of the first sod in May 1981 readily recall no elected representative was singled out for as much praise as Padraig Flynn, Minister for State at the Department of Transport, who was widely referred to as ‘The Messiah’.
Significantly, Flynn’s name was inscribed on the ceremonial plaque that day alongside Albert Reynolds, the senior transport minister. More significantly, however, was the fact the head of the government, Charles Haughey, was firmly behind the development.
Despite the Fianna Fáil party losing power from June 1981 until February 1982, Haughey, Reynolds and Flynn ensured certain contractual obligations in respect of the project could not be reneged upon until the end of 1983 at the earliest.
Thirty years after the scheme first started, it is easy to understand why Deputy Kenny did not align himself closely with it. Indeed the public outcry over the building of ‘a white elephant’ had started long before he raised his initial concerns.
NEGLIGENT
At a meeting of Mayo County Council in January 1982, an authority of which Deputy Kenny was an elected member, a demand was made for a public enquiry to be carried out into the project.
Councillor Frank Durcan said he was in favour of the airport being established but not before the provision of a new general hospital in Castlebar.
He accused the previous, FF-led government, which sanctioned the facility, of being negligent in its use of public funds. His comments were made after £6 million had already been invested in the project.
The escalating negative mood nationally was perhaps best summarised in Dáil Éireann on November 2, 1982, by Labour Party Deputy Eileen Desmond, a former Minister for Health.
She argued: “We cannot accept that chronically ill, pensioners and others on like income should have to pay dearly for essential medicines while public moneys are being frittered away on projects such as Knock Airport.”
Even the Fianna Fáil party became split on the matter. Dublin-based Deputy Niall Andrews described it as ‘a totally disastrous and silly project’, a clear signal of unrest within the ranks. Elected members based in Limerick and Clare were fearful of the threat being posed to Shannon.
Deputy Kenny was back in the line of fire over the issue in the spring of 1984 when he criticised an Easter campaign to collect signatures from Mass-goers demanding the completion of the airport, describing it as ‘an unwarranted intrusion into what is a political matter’.
It drew a rebuke from Kilkelly businessman Stephen Tarpey who claimed Deputy Kenny and his party were not slow to canvass outside church gates during election times.
“The 50,000 Mayo people who signed the petition did so as a gesture of solidarity in their wish to bring prosperity and employment to the region,” Mr. Tarpey told the Irish Independent on April 25, 1984.  
The row occurred at the height of a national debate over the facility which was condemned by Communications Minister, Jim Mitchell, as ‘ill-advised in the extreme’ because of its location ‘high on a foggy and boggy hill’.
Nevertheless, the Fianna Fáil organisation in Mayo stood firmly behind the project. Party MEP Sean Flanagan castigated Mitchell for his ‘constant and nagging attacks’ on the airport while Padraig Flynn came out strongly in December, 1984, by warning the minister not to turn his back on the project.
It was also reported the directors of the airport had sought advice from senior counsel in regard to the government’s legal obligation to complete the scheme.     
Despite being abandoned by the Fine Gael and Labour Party coalition which served from November 1982 to February 1987, the airport became a reality on October 25, 1985, when the first commercial Aer Lingus flights took off from the new airport in Barnacogue to Rome.
It represented a triumph for Monsignor Horan and Fianna Fáil and nobody was surprised when Charlie Haughey, despite being in opposition, was invited to perform the official opening on May 30, 1986.
Thankfully, the early faith placed in the airport has proven to be fully vindicated, as further evidenced by the current Fine Gael/Labour Party government adopting a completely different stance than the coalition of the two parties that served from 1982 to 1987.           
And, for fear it has escaped anybody’s attention, the government jet carrying Taoiseach Enda Kenny back to his home constituency, has started to make stop-offs there!
The political tale of Knock Airport has undeniably come full circle.

 

 

Knock Airport milestones

 

1980: The visionary Monsignor James Horan and Connacht Airport Committee’s proposed new airport at Knock gets government backing.

1981: First sod is turned on site at Barnacogue.

1983: First phase of the runway completed

1985: The first commercial Aer Lingus flights take off on a pilgrimage to Rome.

1986: New Irish airline, Ryanair, begins Knock to Luton route. Official opening on May 30. Monsignor Horan dies in Lourdes on August 1.

1988: Annual passenger numbers exceed 100,000.

1990: Charter flights to Paris and Lourdes and from New York and Boston

1999: Annual passenger numbers in excess of 200,000.

2003: Dramatic increase in sun holiday charter destinations

2004: First snow and ski charters. The airline, bmibaby, begins daily services to Manchester. Airport employs over 120 people directly.

2005: Annual passenger numbers exceed half a million. Airport supports 1,100 jobs in region and contributes €52 million in tourism spend.

2007: Airport receives €27.1 million from the Irish government to support its €48 million investment programme

2008: Passenger numbers up 13 per cent to 629,000.

2010: Airport welcomes bmibaby's 800,000th passenger on their Manchester and Birmingham services.

2011: Government announces annual funding to airport is to continue, the perfect 30^th birthday present!

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