Oisín brings epic flight to life for young readers

“Insanely dangerous in places”, is how children’s author Oisín McGann describes the first non-stop trans-Atlantic journey – of more than 1,800 miles from Canada to Galway – in June 1919.

Oisín’s new historic novel on this achievement, Race the Atlantic Wind, is out now from O’Brien Press. Aimed at younger readers, it’s set in Newfoundland in the lead-up to the historic event when John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown became the first people to fly non-stop across the Atlantic – from St John’s in Newfoundland to Derrygimla outside Clifden.

In a flimsy plane with an open cockpit, they had none of the equipment that modern pilots have, such as computers, satellites or cabin-pressure, says Oisín as he observes how blasé we’ve all become – himself included – about flying.

His book’s cast of characters includes Alcock and Brown, as well as other pilots and navigators who were competing for the phenomenal prize of £10,000 being offered by Lord Northcliffe of the Daily Mail to those who would blaze a new trail in travel.

Race the Atlantic Wind captures the excitement and apprehension among the competitors and Newfoundlanders, and also captures the legacy of World War I. That had ended less than a year previously, with milliions of people killed and countless lives destroyed.

The aviators bidding to make the Atlantic crossing were veterans of that war. Several had been physically wounded and all were psychologically scarred.

Oisín’s novel captures that legacy, as well as drawing a picture of life in Newfoundland’s fishing and farming communities. The Canadian island was home to many Irish immigrants, including his fictional characters, 16-year-old Maggie McRory and her uncle Patrick, originally from Longford.

Patrick, a pilot, had been badly wounded in the war and vehemently opposed all aviation development as a result. The novel beautifully captures the war’s impact on him and his marriage, as Patrick struggles to return to civilian life. In the midst of this trauma comes the excitement around the epic air race.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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