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    Pulling Back the Clouds: Mike Kelly
    Pulling Back the Clouds: Mike Kelly
    Pulling Back the Clouds: Mike Kelly
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    Pulling Back the Clouds: Mike Kelly

    By Kieran Beville

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This is the story of Michael Kelly, collector and curator of the die-cast model aircraft display in Shannon Airport’s Departure Lounge. From his native Limerick Michael networked and befriended some of the world’s most renowned model aircraft distributors and the collection has some of the rarest and most prized aircraft models in the world. The dream, which began when he was a boy, has come to be realised by mutual collaboration with the Airport Authority and is a ‘must see’ for all who pass through Shannon Airport.
    Mike Kelly was born in the 1950s at a time when aviation was about to herald in a golden age in air travel. Shannon Airport was in its infancy when Mike was bitten by the bug for all things aeronautical.
    For over 45 years he has collected die-cast model aircraft, amassing over 2,300 individual models and spending an estimated €500,000 in the process. It is the largest public display of die-cast model aircraft in the world.
    This is the story of this remarkable man and the times he lived through.

    “This collection is an obsession, an act of love by Mike Kelly...and it has found its home here in Shannon Airport.” (Niall Moloney, Operations Director, Shannon Airport).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLimerick Writers Centre
    Release dateMay 5, 2020
    ISBN9780463889268
    Pulling Back the Clouds: Mike Kelly
    Author

    Kieran Beville

    Kieran Beville is author of Write Now – A Practical Guide to Becoming a Writer (Limerick Writers' Centre, 2019). He has had a substantial number of poems and articles published in various newspapers, journals and magazines and four collections of poetry (Revival Press). His book, Pulling Back the Clouds is a short biography of Mike Kelly, collector of the die-cast model aircraft display at Shannon Airport (LWC, 2020). In 2022 Beville was appointed Ollamh (Poet Laureate) for Limerick.

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      Book preview

      Pulling Back the Clouds - Kieran Beville

      PULLING BACK THE CLOUDS

      – MIKE KELLY –

      COLLECTOR AND CURATOR OF THE DIE-CAST

      MODEL AIRCRAFT DISPLAY AT SHANNON AIRPORT

      WRITTEN BY

      KIERAN BEVILLE

      Limerick Writers’ Centre Publishing

      Copyright © Kieran Beville 2020

      First published in Ireland by

      The Limerick Writers’ Centre

      12 Barrington Street Limerick, Ireland

      www.limerickwriterscentre.com

      www.facebook.com/limerickwriterscentre

      All rights reserved

      No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

      1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

      Book Design: Lotte Bender

      Cover Design: Lotte Bender

      E-book Formatting: Máire Baragry

      Internal Painting Images: Con Kelly

      Photographs: Lydia Jaber

      Additional photography: Arthur Ellis & Dominic Taylor

      ACIP catalogue number for this publication is available from The British Library

      I have learned the significance

      of my own insignificant life

      -Frank McCourt

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Acknowledgements

      Introduction

      Pulling Back The Clouds

      Obsession

      Nature

      ‘The Noodling Gardener’

      Cars

      Music

      House

      Bringing the dream full circle

      A wonderful life

      Magdalene Laundries

      School

      Formative years

      Siblings

      Ferenka

      Brotherly love

      A terrible beauty is born

      Living through history

      Daedalus and Icarus

      Aviation history

      Renaissance

      Wright brothers

      Pioneer Era (1903–1914)

      Barnstormers and competitions

      Aviation in World War II

      Speed king

      Digital revolution

      Ireland’s role in aviation

      Foynes

      History of Shannon Airport

      A phoenix from the ashes

      Arthur Toppin

      The Times They Are A-Changin’

      Moon landing

      Trips abroad

      Exploring and developing interest

      Decimalisation

      Cocoon

      Popular culture

      The World Cup

      Where the dream began

      Confraternity

      Muhammad Ali

      Ireland joined the EU

      Early memory

      About the Author

      About The Limerick Writers’ Centre

      Footnotes

      INTRODUCTION

      This is the story of Michael Kelly, collector and curator of the die-cast model aircraft display in Shannon Airport’s Departure Lounge. Mike’s dream began the day he first went to Shannon Airport with his parents, Michael and Mary and his brother Con to watch those magnificent men and women in their flying machines. He was mesmerised by the different aircraft types from the global collection of airlines flying through the international airport.

      Of the great variety of aircraft at Shannon his favourite was the BOAC’s VC10 with its well proclaimed modern design, shape and splendour. The four Rolls Royce Conway engines vibrated the Shannon countryside as this beauty of the skies roared down Runway 24.

      Life’s twists and turns brought Michael in various career directions other than flying but he would continue to be fascinated by and develop a specialised knowledge and long association with aircraft. From his native Limerick city Michael would network and befriend some of the world’s most renowned model aircraft distributors. He flew through Shannon to meet them and brought home some of the latest, rarest and most prized aircraft models to grow his collection.

      After forty-five years of dedication to amassing one of the world’s most unique and spectacular model aircraft collections he found an equally unique and permanent home for them in Shannon Airport. This was realised by mutual collaboration with the Airport Authority. His boyhood dream lives on in Shannon Airport.

      I was approached by a friend of Mike Kelly and asked if I would meet Mike because he was looking for somebody to write his story. I arranged to meet him one Friday morning together with his good friend Eamonn Walsh in the library café at the Savoy Hotel in Limerick, where we had an informal chat. I was impressed, not only by his knowledge but also by his passion. There is something about that kind of intensity of interest that is engaging. He reminded me of David Bellamy(1) who impressed me many years ago or David Attenborough, with his infectious enthusiasm and love of his subject – it’s contagious. Just like these wonderful men Mike has an encyclopaedic knowledge of his specialism and can cross-reference, what would otherwise be a rather unexciting catalogue, with stories that are remarkable. I soon learned you don’t necessarily have to love aviation to appreciate the worth of this truly exceptional man and his astonishing achievement.

      I agreed to meet Mike at his home the following Monday. In many ways he is an ordinary man but in other ways he is extraordinary. He is intelligent, sentimental and very likable.

      By way of example, to demonstrate Mike’s sentimentality, ingenuity and magpie (collector) instinct – in the living-room of his comfortable Harry Potter style, secluded home in Limerick city there is an impressive fireplace with a wood-burning stove in the hearth. Fitted into that rustic wooden fireplace there is a Yale lock with a key inserted. Dangling from that key there is a chain and at the end of that chain there is a gold fob watch. It is an eye-catching curiosity amongst many other objects. I asked about it and learned that the lock is from the front door of his late mother’s home and the chain and watch belonged to his late brother, Con. Mike is deeply connected to the items he collects and everything that can be seen and touched in his quite unique home has a story.

      The huge collection of die-cast model aircraft(2) which he donated to Shannon Airport in 2018, is central to this book. But this is not a specialist book only for aviation enthusiasts – hopefully it will engage the minds and hearts of a more

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