Talk about links between Canada and Ireland! Last month Air Canada announced that it would be returning to Shannon Airport with a direct Toronto-Dublin-Shannon daily service during the summer months.

Air Canada is the successor to TCA, Trans Canada Airlines, which operated a passenger service between Shannon and Montreal from 1947 to 1979.

TCA was the first contact many emigrating Irish had with Canada, and as a Canadian institution it provided a welcome entry to the country of their adoption. Its personnel were friendly, tactful, and courteous, providing a foretaste of what awaited emigrants on debarking at Montreal and going on to points west or east.

That first flight on TCA is indelibly retained in memory, thanks to the honesty and compassion of aircrew and ground attendants. The hapless idiot who left a bottle of tax-free 12 year-old Jameson in the overhead luggage rack while making a plane transfer at Montreal discovered his loss next day in Ottawa.

He phoned to ask about the chances of recovering it. Two days later he was called to say it was waiting for him at the TCA office, at that time located in the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa.

It was unopened, in its original paper bag from the tax-free shop at Shannon Airport!

After tendering profuse thanks, he emerged into a sunny December day, walked up Wellington Street, and just before the main gate onto Parliament Hill the paper bag gave way, the bottle landed on the ground, smashed into smithereens, and spilled 12 year Jameson all over the pavement!

Did I say "hapless idiot:? I meant eejit.

After 1979 Air Canada maintained cargo service between Shannon and Canada, but even that ended in 1984.

Now TCA-sorry-Air Canada is back at Shannon. Céad míle fáilte!

Ye Olde Flying Boats Anniversary

Coincidental with the return of Air Canada to Shannon Airport, the Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Limerick, Ireland, is this year celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first non-stop passenger flight between Foynes, on the estuary of the Shannon River, and New York, which took place on June 22, 1942, when Captain Charles Blair (husband of actress Maureen O' Hara) was the Chief Pilot for American Export Airlines.

As outlined in a Museum press release, during the 1930s and early 1940s the Port of Foynes was the fulcrum point for air traffic between the United States and Europe.

From the first probing flights which ventured out over the Atlantic to the regular scheduled crossings during wartime, Foynes was a hive of activity as passengers came and went to destinations all over the world.

The famous flying boats were frequent visitors, carrying a diverse range of people, from royalty to refugees. Some of the famous names to pass through include John F. Kennedy, Yehudi Menuhin, Al Jolson, Gracie Fields, Humphrey Bogart, Bob Hope, Lord Mountbatten and Douglas Fairbanks.

The Foynes Museum recalls this era with a comprehensive range of exhibits and graphic illustrations and an audio-video show. Visitors can travel back in time in the authentic 1940's cinema, while watching the award winning film "Atlantic Conquest". They can try to send messages via Morse code, and listen to old radio broadcasts by Lord Haw Haw.

Who? His name was Joyce, propaganda broadcaster for Nazi Germany, hung by the Allies after WWW2.

The museum is open daily until October 31, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.