Shamrock 165 Volume I – The Unknown Crash
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Shamrock 165 Volume II – Decision over Dolgellau
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Shamrock 165 Volume III – Thy Will be Done

On the night of 10th January 1952, Ireland suffered its first ever air disaster with the loss of flight EI 165 (London to Dublin) and all 23 passengers and crew. The Saint Kevin became embroiled in ‘the perfect storm’ whilst travelling the valleys and hills of Snowdonia in North Wales. This previously untold story of the crash itself and the people involved is explored over three volumes, giving an alternative perspective to that offered by the official inquiry.

Shamrock 165 Volume I – The Unknown Crash

On a miserable winter’s night, Thursday 10th January 1952, Ireland suffered its first ever national air disaster. The Saint Kevin along with a sister-ship became embroiled in ‘the perfect storm’ whilst travelling the valleys and hills of Snowdonia in North Wales. Aer Lingus was then in her 16th year of operations and had only recently been declared the world’s safest airline.

The story of the loss of the Saint Kevin has never been told before. ‘Shamrock 165 Volume I – The Unknown Crash’  looks back at the events of that evening. What brought these persons to that specific point in the continuum of time and space. What were the true causal factors that predicated the disaster – a systematic chain of unlucky events that were to prove to be unpropitious for the then-newest airship in the National Airline’s fleet. This is the first volume in a series of three from The Saint Kevin Project, exploring what really unfolded on that horrific night in the skies above the majestic Snowdonia National Park.

Over many years of in-depth research, the author has conducted approximately 10,000 interviews and sourced in excess of 12,000 bona-fide legal documents, images, letters, etc. – pertinent to the day-to-day running of the airline, to the Saint Kevin itself and in particular lives tragically lost in this air disaster.

This first volume of the story is generously interspersed with an abundance of genuine photographs that were acquired over the past number of years.

Shamrock 165 Volume II – Decision over Dolgellau

‘Shamrock 165 Volume II – Decision over Dolgellau’ starts with the closing of the Saint Kevin’s (Fox Love) doors. In this volume we bring the aircraft all the way from taxiing to its final rotation. From there we go on to look at the specific routing that the pilots chose that evening. We follow the aircraft as far west as piercing the 4th meridian at which point we temporarily suspend the story until Volume III.

But for the grace of god …
This volume also features a blow-by-blow account of the story of the Saint Kevin’s trailing sister-ship, the Saint Colman (Charlie Tare). On her perilous journey, Charlie Tare went through hell and back, literally falling out of the sky in the process. So bad was the ice she encountered, her propellers were liquefied to the point of inebriation! Twenty six minutes after Fox Love met her fate in Snowdonia, Charlie Tare came within a hairsbreadth of crashing in the same mountain range.

Saint Kevin occupants
Also in this volume are the biographies of five of the victims including First Officer, William Newman, Air Stewardess, Deirdre Sutton, the only teenager on the flight, Lily Wenman and a doctor from West Cork.

Ostensible Operative
And finally, the mysterious traveller, Bill Lynch. Everything about this passenger oozes elusiveness. A plethora of rare and stunning photographs is used to document his entire life – with particular emphasis on his work in what was, at the time, the greatest ever scientific endeavour – The Manhattan Project.

Shamrock 165 Volume III – Thy Will be Done

On Thursday night of the 10th January 1952, Aer Lingus Flight EI 165, en route from Northolt (London) to Collinstown (Dublin), crashed in the Snowdonia mountains. All of the 23 occupants were killed. Four months later, the British government held a public Inquiry into the crash of the Saint Kevin airliner and shortly after, issued a report detailing the causes of the crash.

In this final volume, ‘Shamrock 165 Volume III – Thy Will be Done’, Gawain Cymraeg offers compelling evidence as to what really unfolded in the skies above Snowdonia. A question the author was frequently asked was, “How could they have left our loved ones in a watery-bog-hole atop a lonely mountain?”.

The evidence offered herein gives the victims’ loved ones an alternative perspective as to why the contemporaneous powers-that-be arrived at the ‘desired’ results at all three levels in the post-crash investigative processes. This sheds light on the reason why the entire Saint Kevin airliner – complete with wings and engine – was permanently consigned to the indented bog of the Cwm Edno plateau. And, in this wilful abandonment, the vast majority of the occupants’ remains along with their suitcases and personal belongings, were also condemned to this indefinite erasement.

That an Irishman, who volunteered and became a War aviator hero for another country, would be abandoned for all eternity in a watery grave on a desolate mountaintop, is one thing. The fact that, in death, he would be ignominiously accused of a series of gross misnavigational errors, truly beggars belief. The true spirit of Captain Keohane’s legacy is the spirit of truth – justice will prevail.