In 1983 a Mexican pilot on a transatlantic flight from Newark to Munich, running dangerously low on fuel made an emergernecy landing on Mallow Racecourse in Cork. Captain Rubén Ocaña was flying a Gulfstream II executive jet on April 18, 1983 when his instruments showed it was running dangerously low on fuel. His plan had been to refuel at Shannon, but thick fog made that impossible. With air traffic control guiding him, Ocaña scanned the countryside for a flat enough stretch of land. He located Mallow Racecourse against the odds, set down the plane on the grass. The immediate danger was over but now the multimillion dollar Gulfstream jet was stuck. The ground was too soft to take off again, not just during the current weather but like ever again. There was even talk the jet might have to be dismantled and carted away piece by piece. Captain Ocaña was accompanied by three crew members and four passengers, posh businessmen including Emilio Azcarraga-Milmo, who was the high-profile owner of Televisa, Mexico’s largest television network. Them four were whisked away to complete their journey shortly after the landing. Captain Ocaña and his crew had to await orders. Wealthy insurers quickly did the maths and found it was cheaper to build a temporary runway than to take the yoke apart. Local men and women were hired, machinery was brought in, and a 3,000-foot tarmac strip began to take shape beside the racecourse ( oh and the local sugar factory). It took around six weeks. During that time, the charismatic Mexican Captain Ocaña and his crew became honorary Corkonians and were treated with the great hospitality of the Rebel County. They were put up at the Central Hotel, Captain Ocaña was a regular at hurling matches, and even served as a judge for the “Rakes of Mallow” Beauty Contest (that Rakes polka festival is a fascinating rabbithole in itself btw). By the time the makeshift runway was ready 39 days later, the jet had become a local landmark. Kids cycled out to see it and tourists came to take photographs, postcards were even printed. When the day finally came for takeoff, around two thousand people gathered to see Captain Rubén Ocaña and his crew off. Before stepping aboard, he offered a few words as Gaeilge them they lifted safely into the air, and circled twice above the town in salute before vanishing into the clouds. The legendary event inspired the 2010 film The Runway, Captain Ocañas adventure was commemorated forty years later with Ocaña Fest in April 2023 which featured an air show, Mexican mariachi music, and a screening of original footage captured by local enthusiast Alan Wilson. The weekend reached a poignant conclusion when Ocaña’s four daughters fulfilled their father's final wish by scattering his ashes at the racecourse, marking a permanent return to the town that had welcomed him with such extraordinary hospitality decades earlier. Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublintime…

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

A score of grey ungrowthly stumps stand up Like an old graveyard in my mind: Dingle, Cooleen, A shadowed corner of St. Stephen’s Green… Love is But a Season

Won’t we be rich, my love and I, and please God we shall not ask for reason’s payment, The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges Nor analyse God’s breath in common statement. Advent

Here I have kept fair tryst, and kept it true, When we were lovers all, and you were new; Address to an Old Wooden Gate

Great to see Quoting Kavanagh back👏👏

Every old man I see In October-weather Seems to say to me, “ I was once your father “ Memory of My Father

The wet leaves of the cocksfoot Polished my boots as I Went round by the glistening bog-holes Lost in unthinking joy. Threshing Morning

The two young men were talking about girls. Ninety percent of their conversation was about girls. Only talk. Always talk. Tarry Flynn

Battered by time and weather; scarcely fit For firewood; there’s not a single bit Of paint to hide those wrinkles. Address To An Old Wooden Gate

The new legacy legislation was debated in the House of Commons last night and I took the opportunity to set the record straight about what happened on Bloody Sunday for those who have chosen to ignore the truth for decades.

Unreal finish 🇮🇪 Wow 🤩

"We had to find a way to be Irish in the English language" - Kevin Whelan tells Tommy that the Irish revival at the end of the 19th Century is the real cultural response to an Gorta Mór

He was Irish 🤷‍♂️

A disgraceful post from the leader of a political party. Waving around in triumph the insignia of a regiment that killed 14 unarmed civilians. Tribal sectarianism at its worst.

ORIGINAL POEM: ‘NO SAINT HERE!’ ⁦@TedSmyth⁩ @GerardC76974743 @SiobhanMc80 @cargancampbell ⁦@keeperlit14⁩ @divilthebit @.ClaireMurray ⁦@Kim_Mawhinney⁩ @belfastbrad @BlaithinNiD Na Cláirsigh Béal Átha an Airgid ⁦@PaulClark_UTV⁩ ⁦@JCKP1966

‘THE HILL HEAD’ …. Proud to say that this man Hugh Murphy taught me at school … A fine scholar and poet: @SharonM55472331 ⁦@MarioHughMurphy⁩ ⁦@keeperlit14⁩ ⁦@CarganCampbell⁩ ⁦@BlaithinNiD⁩ ⁦@Garvey14Anne⁩ @divilthebit ⁦⁦@TedSmyth⁩

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven. Canal Bank Walk

It is August now, I have hoped, But I hope no more - My beech tree will never hide sparrows From hungry hawks. Beech Tree