We check out the popular culture of 1981 and look at the big news stories on the day the May Games began.
As the athletes warmed up for the first May Games at Santry Stadium just two miles away, at Dublin Airport, Lawrence Downey boarded the mid-day Dublin-Heathrow flight Ei164.
Dressed in a business suit, Downey carried some extraordinary luggage. In his holdall he had packed deadly containers of petrol and cyanide.
It was Saturday 2nd of May 1981 – a history making day for both aviation and disabled sport in Ireland.
As Flight Ei164 started its descent over Manchester Lawrence Downey made his move. Moments later he emerged from the toilet dowsed in petrol, holding a container of cyanide. Downey directed the pilot to Saudi Arabia. He was a former Trappist monk who hijacked the plane to demand that the Vatican reveal the “3rd Secret of Fatima”!
With insufficient fuel Flight Ei164 diverted to Le Touquet airport, outside Paris. As darkness crept in French paratroopers, taking extraordinary risks stormed the plane and rescued the 103 passengers.
The first and only Irish airline hijacking faded fast from the headlines as the dominant news story of 1981 – the IRA hunger strike – reached a tragic moment. As our May Games participants returned home the death was announced of hunger strike leader Bobby Sands MP. Throughout the spring and summer of ’81 10 IRA hunger strikers died in the quest for political prisoner status in Northern Ireland.
The hunger strike dominated the General Election of May 1981. Charlie Haughey oversaw the loss of a very comfortable majority as Fine Gael and Labour, supported by independents, elected Dr. Garret FitzGerald as Taoiseach.
The other big item on the May election campaign in ’81 was recession. Unlike today we then had a record breaking inflation rate of 20.4%. But then you could buy a three bed semi for 19,500 punts. Your average wage was 110 punts per week and you could buy a pint of beer for 89p.
When you turned on your mono 6 channel telly you might have been inspired by Sally O’Brien and the way she might look at you, a cult ad during the early ‘80s. The top billing TV programmes were M.A.S.H and Dallas. The domestic TV flagship news programme was Today Tonight, with presenters Mary McAleese and Pat Kenny. Meanwhile, July 29th 1981 saw a record breaking 750 million live TV audience for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.
The top box office movie of the time was Chariots of Fire. The No. 1 pop song back on 2nd May 1981 was Making Your Mind Up from Bucks Fizz, winner of the 1981 Eurovision at the RDS, Dublin. The US No. 1 was 9 to 5 from Sheena Easton.
As the First May Games were in full swing Aston Villa were declared English League Champions. 10 days later Spurs took the FA Cup. On 4th of July John McEnroe – yes we can be serious – dethroned 5 times champion Bjorn Borg to claim his first ever Wimbledon. In September Offaly won their first ever hurling All Ireland while Kerry made it 4 in a row in football.
Sadly, 1981 was the year of the tragic St. Valentine’s Stardust fire in which 48 young revellers lost their lives in Artane.
Little known rockers U2 were bottom of the bill for the first ever Slane. On 11 May 1981 Jamaica bid farewell to their legend Bob Marley.
1981 saw the launch of MTV. The first ever pc was unveiled by IBM while the word “internet” entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
As ex-monk hijacker Downey began his 5 year jail sentence there was a priest in the west of Ireland who had a very different aviation vision: an airport in Knock. In May 1981 Monsignor James Horan persuaded outgoing Taoiseach Charlie Haughey to grant him a few bob. Several controversial years later the dream became reality as the now highly successful Ireland West airport was born.
Sure, we were all flying in 1981!