Replica of `Normandie' liner sets sail again

The original Normandie sailed on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic from Le Havre to New York in 1935. A contemporary of the Queen Mary, it was one of the last of the great passenger liners and had fabulous art deco interiors. The chandeliers and light fittings were designed by Lalique and were so numerous that, when they were all blazing, the liner was known as the "Ship of Lights".

The Normandie had three huge funnels, but only two were real. The third faux funnel contained a restaurant. At a length of 1,029 feet, it was the largest liner in the world.

Considered a revolutionary piece of naval engineering, the Norman- die went on to win the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing of the time - the first French liner to do so.

But the Normandie was built in a volatile period of history. In 1941 it was seized by the US navy and called into Allied service. While in New York harbour, being converted into a troop ship, it caught fire in 1942. It was never to sail again and in 1947 it was scrapped.

At Belfield lake yesterday morning a miniature model of the Normandie set sail on its first voyage in 25 years, controlled by radio from the shore by 82-year-old Mr John Kearney. Unlike another famous liner, the Titanic, it managed to avoid the ice which covered half the lake.

Mr Kearney, who was born and raised in Paris, saw the original Normandie being built. "My father, Leopold, was a diplomat based in France at that time and we used to go on holiday by train to Brittany. From the windows of the train we could see the Normandie being built at the Saint Nazaire shipyard."

In 1933 he was given a gift of a five-foot model of the hull and he spent the next few years building the rest of the ship. "Balsa wood, bits of Meccano, radio valves. All the parts in those days were so big compared to what they are like now." In 1940 he fitted the model with a home-made radio control system, and he made various forays to the ponds at Blackrock and Herbert Park in subsequent years.

For the last quarter-century the model boat has lain untouched in an attic. A few months ago Mr Kearney "just got a notion to take it out on the water again". The passing of time and the layers of dust had eroded parts of the ship.

"Part of the deck needed to be replaced. And all the radio control pieces are new", he explained, as he engineered a nifty right turn on the lake, much to the delight of curious passing students. To his knowledge, it is the oldest radio-controlled model ship in the State.