Commemorating the Flight of the Bremen

Fitzmaurice wrote: "In Irish air transport much has been achieved and a great future develops, of which our people will be justly proud. I feel certain that in that pride of achievement, the adventure of the Bremen will be seen in all its full significance, and that my dead comrades and I, will therefore, not soon be forgotten" (Fennelly, p.343)

Since his death, efforts have been made to commemorate Fitzmaurice's great achievement.

On the forty-fifth anniversary of the flight in 1973, a commemorative plaque was unveiled by the Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave in a cermenony at Balldonnel. The plaque is a granite marker on the spot where the Bremen took off.

On the 50th anniversary of the flight a number of events were organised in Ireland, the centrepiece of which was the Royal Aeronautical Society Commemorative Lecture and dinner at the Burlington Hotel. There was also an aeronautical exhibition at Dublin Airport, a flight by an Aer Lingus Boeing Jet retracing the flight of the Bremen and the opening of a new training school at Baldonnel.

On 9th February 1996 the Fitzmaurice Flying School was officially opened at Baldonnel. In April 1996 the main restaurant at the Kingswood County House Hotel in Clondalkin was named the Col. James Fitzmaurice Room.

Fitzmaurice was also one of four famous Irish aviators commemorated on postage stamps by An Post in 1998.


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