It is 40 years since one parish priest in the west of Ireland saw his dreams come true. It wasn’t a visit of the Pope, which had already happened years before, but the construction of an airport – Knock Airport.
Inspired by what a transport hub of its size could do for his beloved Mayo and the whole of the west of Ireland, Monsignor James Horan led a one-man charge to connect Connacht to the world.
Since the 1930s, locals had been discussing the prospect of an air strip to boost visitor numbers.
So, what obstacles did Monsignor Horan face along the way? How did this Mayo man make his dream a reality and connect the west of Ireland to the wider world?
We look at what happened to the man who made it all happen 40 years on from that first flight landing in Knock from Dublin – and how his incredible story become the subject of a book and even a musical.
Today on The Indo Daily, Kevin Doyle is joined by Terry Reilly, author of the book ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’, to recount the decades since the birth of Knock Airport.