“An Irish man who made a singular and significant contribution to the development of aviation both in Ireland and around the world.”
A LEADING contributor to the aviation industry is the first recipient of an award established by the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. The late Dr. Tony Ryan, founder of Guinness Peat Aviation and Ryanair was named as the first to receive the honour of the inaugural National Aviation Award at a reception attended by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar, local politicians and members of the Ryan family.
Dr Ryan’s nephew Simon Ryan, who himself is a Ryanair pilot, said he was “delighted to receive the award” on behalf of his uncle.
“He is a deserved recipient who spent his entire career in aviation and built up two of the biggest companies in the world”.
It was revealed that Dr Ryan wrote one of the first cheques to help get the Foynes Flying Boat Museum up and running in 1988.
Chairman of the Board at the museum, Brian Cullen, said it was fitting that the first such award should go posthumously to Dr Ryan, an Irish man who had made a singular and significant contribution to the development of aviation both in Ireland and around the world.
“Apart from being our first financial supporter, he established GPA in Shannon from which many other leasing companies have sprung, and he also founded Ryanair”, Mr. Cullen added.
The award will take the form of an artwork, to be selected from entries in a competition that the Flying Boat Boat Museum is running in association with the Visual Arts Society of Ireland, to find an artefact that most suitably reflects the spirit, character and success of Dr Ryan.
A winner will be selected by the Board of the museum and the successful artwork will be commissioned for display in the museum’s Hall of Fame.
Minister Varadkar and other representatives were given a guided tour of the museum which includes artefacts from the early days of Foynes Airport, a children’s area with flight simulators and a hologram room where the story of how the first Irish coffee was invented is told.
Revealing that this was his first visit to the museum, the minister said he was very impressed and had enjoyed the story of how the first Irish Coffee came into being.
“It’s a real privilege to be ins such a historic location, in order to pay tribute to the late Dr Tony Ryan who has made such an enormous contribution in terms of both tourism and transport” said Minister Varadkar.
