Flynn set a high delivery bar in respect of his native Mayo

"Why did we think we had so little when we had so much?"

by Richard Martin

Knock Airport celebrated its 40th year anniversary last month.

It is the beacon of Mayo pride. Some 946,381 passengers passed through it last year. The million barrier will be broken soon.

The ‘foggy boggy’ airport is anything but. It’s a major success story for the county and region.

It’s hard to believe it, but there was considerable opposition to it being built and developed at the time. FG were totally against it.

In 1985 a Fine-Gael-led government decided to withdraw from further participation in the affairs of the Connaught Airport Development Company, as it was called at the time. A total of €9.8 million in Exchequer funding had been allocated to the airport up to that point.

Knock Airport was the product of a singular visionary. The Monsignor Horan. Haughey and FF backed him to the hilt.

There would’ve been no Haughey without Flynn and no Flynn without Haughey. FF and FF alone can take total credit for its inception, development and success. Galway city doesn’t have an airport. We do.

And of course, who was one of the main speakers at the 40th anniversary event? Padraig Flynn.

A lot has been said and written in the positive and the negative over the years but when it comes to delivery, Flynn is the gold standard. There’s no debate around that.

He was in the Dáil for 15 years. Only 15 years. And we still talk about him. Every politician rightly or wrongly from the county post-Flynn is measured against him. Did you deliver? It’s very simple. Yae or Nay.

On the night, Flynn correctly made the point that only half of the Monsignor’s vision has been fulfilled.

The SDZ (Strategic Development Zone) around Knock Airport needs to be developed. The 284-hectare site around the airport should become a major logistics facility.

The likes of Abbvie, Coca Cola, Vantive and Hollister could all develop alongside it in parallel. From a commercial viewpoint the full potential of the airport hasn’t as of yet been realised.

Minister Dara Calleary was in attendance on the night. He has now become a major national politician in his own right. He is a senior cabinet minister. A central question must be asked?

Can he deliver like Flynn?

In the end Calleary's career will be judged like all other politicians.

Did he deliver major projects or not? A good constituency office and safe politics has its place, but there’s a step beyond all of that. The question is will he take it?

Let’s jump back again to Larry. He passed away last year. From having a stroke in the prime of his life to his passing over 50 years later, he was the quintessential survivor. He went out on his shield.

Around Christmas I called into hospital before he died. He was on his own in a ward on the fourth floor. We talked for 10 minutes or so. I knew it was the end. He knew it too.

I didn’t tell him that I loved him. Even though I did and I do. He never said anything like that. It wouldn’t be his style. He never told me. He showed me.

A nurse came and interrupted us. That was the cue to leave. His parting words were: "Alright kid. Mind yourself." And that was that.

It’s very easy to enter the ghetto of sentimentality and get lost in the past. It’s a dangerous place. I try not to go there too often.

Sometimes when I walk around the Mall I go there. Sometimes Larry walks with me.

I can see the legacy of Flynn around me. The library. The garda station. The council buildings. And then I see abject dereliction, neglect and decay.

Why did we think we had so little when we had so much?