Archive (1372 life histories found)

The most memorable thing that occurred during my time in the Cadet School was the assassination of President Kennedy. His widow , Jackie requested that the Irish Government to send a consignment of Irish Cadets to do honour guard at his funeral in…

We were once taken out to sea by the Navy in one of their ageing corvettes. The purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate to potential officers the anti submarine capability of the Irish Navy. The grand finale entailed dropping depth charges on…

That summer we were due to spend a few weeks in the Waterford Gaeltacht under canvass to improve our knowledge of Irish. The tents and all other equipment were transported by trucks, but it was decided it would be good exercise for the Cadets to…

It is often said that the best years of your life were schooldays,, but in my case the most enjoyable and interesting were the years I spent as a Cadet in the Military College, the Curragh , County Kildare. I joined straight out of school and on…

I had been working as a trainee salesman for an office suppliers company in the east end of London. I was not very excited with the prospect of spending the rest of my life selling paper, ink and copy machines. I had a CPL (Civil Pilots license )…

One of my abiding memories of childhood was the long summer days we spent in Brittas Bay. My Dad was in the building business and the traditional builders holidays was the first two weeks of August. We were a family of five children, but had many…

Just after getting my Commercial Pilots Licence I managed to get a job in Amsterdam. The company employed contract workers around Europe who needed to travel to different locations and to do this as cheaply as possible they procured a few clapped…

We were all excited when the managing director told us that we were getting a new fleet of aircraft, but less so when they arrived. They were the Bristol Britannias, the first four engined turbo - prop aircraft built by the Brits. They were in…

I started my flying career with an airline cargo company who were regarded in aviation circles as the'F Troop' of the flying world. They operated , when I joined, a couple of WW Two aircraft, DC 4's and 6's, which had four piston engines long past…

Initially there were 77 entries in the Race, but only 60 managed to complete the course. There were 3 classes: A, single piston - engined; B. unsupercharged twin piston - engined up to12,500 lbs and C supercharged or twin turboprop up to 12,500lbs…