Thursday 6 April 2017

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Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland, and Bill Grimson, former president of the organisation, recently visited Casement Aerodrome, the military airfield to the southwest of Dublin, to unveil a plaque in the on-site chapel. The plaque acknowledges a new pane of beautiful stained glass in the window of the garrison chapel. The window features the phi symbol, to commemorate all engineers in the Air Corps and Defence Forces who have passed away. Construction work at the chapel at what was then known as Baldonnel Aerodrome began in 1943, to replace an earlier structure. The church was dedicated on 10 December 1944 in honour of Our Lady of Loreto & St Brigid. In February 1965, Baldonnel was renamed Casement Aerodrome in honour of the Irish nationalist Roger Casement, who was executed for treason by the British in 1916 and whose body was repatriated to Ireland via the aerodrome. Following the demolition of Nelson’s Pillar on Dublin's O'Connell Street by Army engineers in 1966, personnel at Clancy Barracks, Islandbridge, shaped a fragment of the granite from the column into a font for use at their oratory. On the closure of Clancy Barracks, the granite font was positioned at the main door of the Casement Aerodrome garrison church in 2001.