Republic of Ireland Irish Air Corps /Aero Club Lapel Pin pre 1922

[FrontlineAntiques]

Hi chaps

Recently recieved this. It came from the house of a distant relative of my Wife, whose family were involed in the uprising and lived in Rathfarnham / Rathmines Road in the early part of this century. Its a lovely little pin in silver. No makers mark or hall mark.

The Aero Association was a fore-runner of the Irish Air Corps, and they were called upon to aid and arrange for the possible rescue of Michael Collins from the Anglo-Irish Treaty talks of 1921, thus forming the embryonic Irish Air Corps. A Martinsyde Type A Mark II biplane was purchased and put on 24-hour standby at Croydon airport in order to allow him to escape back to Ireland if the talks failed. In 1922 there were just 400 member of the IAC.

This is all the information I have at the moment. Can anyone help?

Cheers

Dan

[PKeating]

The Irish Aero Club was formed in 1909 and didn't have anything to do with the Air Service, formed by the Irish Free State government in June 1922, not long after the acquisition of the aircraft to which you refer. However, the club, based in the Irish Automobile Club's building in Dawson Street, flew from an airfield at Baldonnel, now the location of Casement Aerodrome, the main Irish Air Corps base. The Air Service became the Air Corps in 1924 when the Defence Forces were established.

Here are some links for IAC history:

http://www.aeroclub.ie/mainsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=93

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=16901

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=7177

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1910/1910%20-%200716.html

I've been trying to match the abbreviation on your pin. It may represent Irish words, in which case it would certainly date from the Republican era when de Valera was trying to get everyone to speak Irish as the nation's first language. The three-bladed airscrew suggests the 1930s at the very least. The classy look of the pin leads me to disbelieve that it could postdate the 1940s, as Ireland subsequently embraced kitsch.

[Ceallach]

Gentlemen,

Possibly an Aeronautical Engineers Association badge (Ae.E.A)

Formed in mid 1940's in the UK as a union.

Regards - An Ceallach