What would Monsignor James Horan think of Knock airport today?
By Tom Gillespie and Bill Heaney
Priests in the Archdiocese of Glasgow have achieved many remarkable things, but only one of them has built an airport, not a small airport for private planes but the real thing.
Joe Gilmour, the boss of Ireland West airport often wonders what founder Monsignor James Horan, an assistant priest at St Patrick’s Church in Dumbarton, would think of the development 40 years on.
As the airport celebrates its 40th anniversary Mr. Gilmore said: “I do ask myself if Monsignor Horan was around 40 years later how he would feel about it.
“I hope that when he saw that nearly a million people are using the airport every year and all the activity around it that he would be pleased.
“I would say he would be probably disappointed that we haven’t been able to progress as a region more of the economic zone around the airport and while there is an ongoing project now and we are seeking to try and bring more business and industry into it.
“It is probably the area we are working on and calling on the region and the government to try and get that off the ground.”
He added: “It would be nice to see more employment in terms of a spin-off at the airport.
“Our plans are to continue to grow and develop but be sustainable. The key is to be sustainable and to have a business that is viable and that it will be here for the longer term.”
MEMORABILIA ON DISPLAY
Meanwhile, to mark the 40th anniversary of the birth of Ireland West Airport, Monsignor Horan is being remembered in a special way at the Sláinte Barista Café in the airport terminal.
His signature ‘Russian’ hat, reading glasses, Roman Breviary and rosary beads, from the Knock Museum Collection, take pride of place in a showcase in the upstairs café.
Also in the glass case is a photo of the Monsignor, arms spread in triumph at the end of the runway.
In the adjoining glass case is the first sod that was turned at the airport development on Saturday, May 2, 1981.
Also on display is the silver spade that was used to turn the first sod, an Irish tradition when civil engineering projects are completed and come into use.
Close by on a huge screen is a looped replay of US President Joe Biden’s landing at the airport on Friday, April 14, 2023.
Monsignor Horan was an assistant priest, what was then called a curate, at St Patrick’s when Monsignor Hugh Canon Kelly was the parish priest. He was later transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes parish at Cardonald in Glasgow.
He hit the headlines and was name checked once again on the 40th anniversary of Ireland West when Europe’s best known airline proprietor and millionaire racehorse owner Michael O’Leary turned up to do the honours.
Michael O’Leary dons Mayo jersey at Ireland West Airport and says it can continue to grow with Government help
Michael O’Leary arrived at Ireland West Airport in a Mayo jersey, praising its founder Monsignor James Horan and saying the airport can keep expanding with further Government support
Michael O’Leary arrived at Ireland West Airport Knock in a Mayo Gaelic football jersey as he declared that passenger numbers could soar to 1.5 million with “the right Government support.”
Speaking at the launch of Ryanair’s largest-ever summer schedule from Knock, the 65-year-old said that “Ryanair and Knock have disproven all the naysayers over the last 40 years”.
Mr O’Leary’s visit coincides with the 40-year anniversary of Ireland West Airport Knock’s official opening and the first Ryanair flight leaving the airport in 1986.
Knock Airport, which welcomed a record 946,381 passengers in 2025, is expected to exceed 1 million passengers later this year.
Mr O’Leary said that the airport could potentially exceed 1.5 million passengers in the future.
Ireland West Airport Knock received €1.9 million under the latest allocation and has been included in the 2026-2030 Regional Airports Programme.
“That one million [passenger cap] should be lifted to two million, but without any tapering off. That would enable Knock to continue to invest here, to receive support for infrastructure investments,” Mr O’Leary told reporters.
“And we certainly, working together with Joe [Gilmore, Ireland West Airport Knock Managing Director] and his team, would be more than happy to put more flights into Knock Airport and continue to grow.
“We think we should be trying to grow from a million to maybe a million and a half passengers, but there’s a big cost penalty for Knock Airport once they go over a million passengers, and the government needs to re-look at that so that we can continue to invest and grow here.”
The Rail Corridor between Claremorris and Athenry is due to reopen. However, the northern section between Claremorris and Sligo remains disused, despite calls to reopen this section.“Look, we have a country with a population of five and a half million people. We don’t have the population base to support these mad railway systems,” said O’Leary.
“We have very good road infrastructure. We have terrific public transport, bus services from Dublin Airport to all over the country. There’s bus services that leave Knock Airport here and take people to Dublin Airport as well. That works well.”
Mr O’Leary doubled down on his criticism of the Dublin Metro project and lambasted the government for spending “billions on building f**ing railways that ultimately that will lose money from the day they open”.
Mr O’Leary arrived at the airport at 11.30am this morning and donned a Mayo jersey after disembarking from an empty Boeing 737 jet.
Mr O’Leary described the partnership between Knock Airport and Ryanair as “one of the great success stories of Irish tourism”.
“Nobody believed that you could build an airport on a bog on top of a hill in the west of Ireland. And even if it was going to be built, then nobody would come and use it.”
“Many of the Europeans don’t want to go to Dublin, they don’t want to go to the east coast, they actually want to go to the west coast … and Kerry [Airport] and Knock [Airport] give them that direct access at low fares into the west of Ireland.”
He also paid tribute to Monsignor James Horan, who died the year the airport officially opened in 1986, following several years of campaigning and fundraising for the airport.
“He was undoubtedly a visionary. Now he’s mad, but it was still a visionary project, and it has demonstrated its success over many years. I think he’s up there with Tony Ryan as being one of the real aviation visionaries that Ireland produced,” said Mr O’Leary.
“The people of Knock, Charlestown, the west of Ireland, should be eternally grateful for the work that Monsignor Horan did.
“I mean, he built an airport at the time for, really, chump change…about ten million quid at a time when our current government will waste two, two-and-a-half billion building a children’s hospital.
“They should bring back Monsignor Horan. He can get things done where Micheál Martin doesn’t.”
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary paid a brief visit to Ireland West Airport Knock on Tuesday to mark the airport’s 40th anniversary.
Mr O’Leary said he did not watch RTÉ’s recent two-part documentary on the history of Ryanair, which he declined an invitation to take part in.
“I have much better things to be doing than watching that old rubbish,” he said.
Mr O’Leary presented a piece of crystal and a model Ryanair plane to Arthur French, Chairman of Ireland West Airport Knock, to mark Ryanair’s partnership with the airport, which began when the first Ryanair flight left Knock Airport in December 1986.
He later received a framed mirror featuring a collage of photographs from Joe Gilmore, Managing Director of Ireland West Airport Knock.