Prime minister shot down Ireland overflying request

Graffiti in Belfast in the 80s used to comment on the blue skies of Ulster and the "grey skies" of the Irish Republic, but the prospect of Irish planes over NI skies had been causing raised eyebrows in Stormont three decades earlier.

In 1952, the Air Ministry in London was proposing to open two navigational schools, one in Bishop's Court, County Fermanagh and the other at Langford Lodge, County Antrim, for RAF pilots.

The aim was for the airmen to become proficient in land and sea navigation and, as part of this, M H O'Grady from the ministry approached the Stormont administration on reciprocal overflying with the Irish Republic.

A file of confidential memos, released by the NI Public Records Office under the Freedom of Information Act, details how the Air Ministry plan was shot down by the NI administration.

Mr O'Grady said that it would be valuable for pilots based in Northern Ireland to occasionally "overfly Eire airspace" on training exercises, but that the Irish would want the same courtesy for the skies over Northern Ireland.

He wanted the Stormont government to liaise with the Dublin administration to see if an accommodation could be reached, but signalled he was aware of possible sensitivities.

Coat trailing

"Such right might, if exercised, cause no small uproar in the North, particularly if organised so as to overfly Londonderry on 12 July which I am credibly informed is the anniversary of a memorable fracas on the Boyne," he wrote to the Northern Ireland Liaison officer in Whitehall, A J Kelly.

Mr Kelly replied that he did not think the Irish would "deliberately trail their coats" but would want to make use of the facilities themselves and forwarded the request to the NI Cabinet Secretariat.

Agreeing to raise the matter with his political masters, A Robinson at Stormont said that the matter was a political one rather than a security issue and thought it unlikely that "an Eire plane would smoke-write in the skies on 12 July such heretical sentiments as 'Up James!'."

However, he noted that there was the potential for "nasty talk" should an Irish plane sporting a tricolour overfly a field being used for an Orange Order Twelfth demonstration, but added that this was also "unlikely".

The request however, was vetoed by the unionist Prime Minister Sir Basil Brooke.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Gransden informed the Air Ministry that the prime minister refused the request because "there are serious objections to granting such a request in view of the attitude of the authorities in the Republic to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland".

At the time, the Irish constitution claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland.

After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, this was amended to outlining the will of the Irish people for a united Ireland but one to be achieved peacefully and with the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.