Portlaoise is to honour one of its most important residents this year - and name a street after him. Although born in Limerick, aviator James Fitzmaurice, or "Fitz", spent his young life in Portlaoise where his father was a prison officer.
Fitzmaurice was in the team that flew the Atlantic Ocean from West to East for the first time in 1928, in a time of 36.5 hours.
Fitzmaurice flew with two Germans, Capt Hermann Keohl and Baron von Heunfeld, in a Junker W33. Ten years before, as a British army officer, he had been trying to kill them.
"Fitz" was a fervent nationalist who had been a Redmondite and drilled with them at the outbreak of war in 1914. But he joined the British army to defend small nations and fought with distinction in the bloody battles of the Somme and Arras. He was sent back to England and commissioned in 1917.
Years before that, however, he had discovered the joy of aviation when he helped build what is believed to be the first aircraft assembled in what became the Republic of Ireland.
That was at Tower Hill in Portlaoise, when he accidentally stumbled into a garage run by the Aldritt family who were building a monoplane.
He joined the team and watched his creation plunge into the ground after an abortive flight. The aircraft's remains were still on show at the family garage until the 1950s.
"Fitz" was inspired by what he saw and went on to write his name into aviation history. The people of Portlaoise are determined not to forget him either.
A number of events have been arranged this year, 70 years after the famous flight. A new street is to be named after him and a bust of the flier will be unveiled in April, the date of the historic flight.
Local newspaper editor Teddy Fennelly has published a new book on Fitzmaurice which was launched in Portlaoise last week. It tells of the links between this famous Irishman and the Midlands which gave him the inspiration that brought him a place in aviation history.