Aviation bu›s should put seaplane museum on their radar

Pioneering aviators, Hollywood icons and the birthplace of Irish coffee are celebrated in Ireland’s unique Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum.

Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, which tells the story of one of the world’s first great aviation hubs, has reopened after a multi-million-euro upgrade.

The museum is a short drive from Limerick City and is housed within the original terminal building of Foynes Airport, which operated from 1939 to 1945. It recounts the part that Ireland played during the 1930s and 40s when it was central to transatlantic seaplane flights.

The expanded museum now includes a new aviation museum, a 100-seater cinema, seaplane flight simulators and an archive research centre and library. The top-class visitor experience preserves the history of the period through displays of old photographs and memorabilia telling of the famous figures who travelled through the airport, among them Charles Lindbergh, John F Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Humphrey Bogart and Ernest Hemingway.

One of the highlights of the aviation museum is the full-size replica of a Boeing 314 flying boat, complete with a honeymoon suite, which illustrates the luxury that passengers enjoyed.

Meanwhile the maritime museum focuses on the history and stories of part of the River Shannon that runs from Limerick to Loop Head. Its exhibitions show how currachs and gondolas were made and explain how the weather and tides were monitored.

The museum now also has a special Maureen O’Hara exhibition celebrating the late actor’s achievements and displaying over 750 dresses from her personal and professional collection as well as hundreds of pairs of shoes and handbags. O’Hara had a close association with the museum as her husband Charlie Blair piloted the flying boats into Foynes during the 1940s. The exhibition includes a recreation of the famous kitchen in the movie The Quiet Man, in which she starred with John Wayne.

How the first Irish coffee came to be created is told in the museum’s Irish Coffee Centre. The story goes that one night in the winter of 1943 a flight departed Foynes for Newfoundland.

After flying for several hours in bad weather, the captain decided to return to Foynes and the passengers were brought to the airport restaurant. On being asked to prepare something to warm the passengers, the chef decided to put some Irish whiskey into the coffees and so the iconic drink was born.

In addition to Foynes museum, County Limerick offers visitors a wealth of other world-class attractions. History enthusiasts will love the imposing medieval King John’s Castle in Limerick City while fans of the great outdoors should make for the Limerick Greenway, a picturesque 39km off-road walking and cycling route.