Canadian Ambassador launches Alcock & Brown Festival in Clifden

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland is in Connemara today to launch the Alcock & Brown 100 Festival. Next year marks a century since the first non-stop transatlantic flight in history landed in a bog a few kilometres south of Clifden. Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown set off from Newfoundland in Canada on June 14th 1919 in a modifed bomber. Over 16 hours later – and after several near-fatal incidents in grueling conditions – they crashed in a bog at Derrygimla near Clifden. June of next year will mark 100 years since the historic achievement – and a special festival will take place in Connemara to mark the occasion. Our reporter Mairtín O Catháin is at the launch – he has been speaking to Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin Vickers about the legacy of Alcock and Brown. For more on this tune in to FYI Galway at 5…