On Tuesday, March 28th, Aer Lingus Flight EI 0102, an Airbus A330, will take off from Dublin Airport on its inaugural flight to Dubai. It is estimated that the plane will carry 275 passengers and 15 tons of freight. This eight-hours flight to the desert will take place 70 years and two months after Aer Lingus's very first flight, which took place on May 27th, 1936, when a single-engine de Havilland 84 Dragon carrying five passengers took off from Dublin Airport for Bristol. The only freight aboard that day was a parcel of The Irish Times bound for London.
It was also Epsom Derby Day. The minister for industry and commerce, Seán Lemass, a keen racing man, made his early way to Baldonnel Airport for the blessing of the first Aer Lingus plane. Mr Lemass was having a good week. Trade with the UK was on the increase, despite the economic war. Still, there was a duty payable on butter and eggs going into the North - seven shillings (44 cent) per 120 where duck eggs were concerned. Duck eggs apart, the prospectus that had appeared on Monday in the papers was good news for the government. A new company, Cement Ltd, was proposing to build two cement-producing factories in Ireland, one near Drogheda, the other near Limerick, and for that purpose was raising share capital of £300,000 (€381,000).
The factories would produce 225,000 tons of cement each year and the projected annual net profit was £125,000 (€160,000). "For those who are prepared to wait," said the canny Irish Times business correspondent, "the shares should return good dividends. . ." And now, the national airline, Aer Lingus Teo, incorporated just five days before, was making its first flight. The passengers were assembled at Baldonnel and when Mr Lemass arrived, the Army Corps chaplain, Father William O'Riordan, blessed the six-seater biplane aircraft, Iolar (Eagle). The pilot, OE Armstrong, was introduced to the minister and to the passengers: Mrs Seán Ó hUadhaigh, wife of the chairman of Aer Lingus Teo, WH Norton, a director of the fledgling State airline, TJ O'Driscoll, Department of Industry and Commerce, and Mr and Mrs Fitzherbert who were presumably the only ones paying a fare and as such Aer Lingus's first commercial passengers. Mr Lemass said he felt sure there was "a considerable future for aviation in this country." The passengers were individually weighed by station staff, the plane was boarded and took off shortly after 9am.
The Derby cannot have been far from Mr Lemass's mind as he was driven back into Dublin. The favourite for the big race was Pay Up, winner of the 2000 Guineas. The Aga Khan owned three runners: Bala Hissar, who had been top two-year-old the year before, Taj Akbar, ridden by Gordon Richards, and Mahmoud, the mount of Charlie Smirke. Well fancied too was Carioca, a colt owned by the colourful Maharaja of Rajpipla.
Half a million people were expected in Epsom for the big race, whose first prize was £10,000 (€12,700). To put the money in context: a three-room top-floor flat in Ballsbridge was renting for 27/6 (€1.70) a week, a golf bag and six clubs could be had in Switzers on Grafton Street for £3.15.0 (€4.75) and one could buy a detached residence in Dalkey on two acres overlooking the harbour for £1,150 (€1,460). The weekly wages of a bus driver amounted to around £2.5.0 (€2.80).
Iolar's flight path to Bristol took it across the Irish coast between Dalkey and Bray and onwards at a height of 4,000 feet over the Welsh Mountains. Lemass had time to go into his office and get affairs of state out of the way before devoting a little personal time to studying form. It was, by general agreement, a wide-open Derby. Would Pay Up stay the mile and a half of the race? Or maybe Thankerton, the mount of Tommy Burns and third in the Guineas, would be the one. Lemass, a man with an awesome grasp of facts and figures, would have realised that greys had a poor record in the race, one of the reasons why Mahmoud, despite having Smirke up, was at the long odds of 100/8.
Iolar's flight time to Bristol was about 90 minutes. The distinguished passengers disembarked and were presumably congratulated by local dignitaries. After lunch, the three "official" passengers re-boarded for the flight back to Dublin.
As Iolar was taking off from Bristol, the starting flag was dropped in Epsom and the Derby began. All over Ireland, racing enthusiasts clung to their wireless sets. Carioca was in front after a furlong and remained there until the top of the hill.
As the horses streamed down to Tattenham Corner, Thankerton shot into the lead and was five lengths clear at the head of the straight.
"It seemed then all Lombard Street to a China Orange that Thankerton would win," mused the Times's racing correspondent next day.
Iolar arrived back home in mid-afternoon, 30 minutes behind schedule. Thankerton was passed half way up the straight by Mahmoud, who won the Derby in a blistering time of 2 minutes 33.8 seconds, a record that would not be bettered for 59 years. The details of Lemass's investment that day remain unknown.