Pan Am at Foynes
The Flying Boats
From July 1939, the Boeing 314 Clippers of Pan American began scheduled transatlantic service from Foynes. The Yankee Clipper landed first on 11 April 1939. From 1939 until October 1945, Pan Am made 2,097 Atlantic crossings via Foynes. On 18 August 1945—the record day—two aircraft arrived from New York and returned the same night. The last flight, Pacific Clipper, departed 29 October 1945. The golden age lasted six years. When it ended, commercial aviation moved to land-based airports and never looked back.
Joe Sheridan, November 1943
Irish Coffee
On a cold evening in November 1943, a Pan American flying boat turned back to Foynes due to bad weather. The passengers were frustrated and cold. Joe Sheridan, the terminal's head chef, was asked to make something hot for them. He brewed strong coffee, added Irish whiskey, and topped it with whipped cream. When a passenger asked if it was Brazilian coffee, Sheridan said no—this is Irish coffee. The drink spread from that moment. By 1952 it had reached the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco. Sheridan was thirty-four when he invented the world's most famous Irish export.
The water and the sky
The Estuary
The Shannon estuary stretches twelve miles from Foynes to the open Atlantic. In the 1939-1945 years, the flying boats took off from this water—a smooth surface, long sight lines, deep enough for the weight of a fully loaded Clipper. Now it is quiet. The port still works, but for cargo ships and fishing boats. The walk along the estuary offers views to Foynes Island, where Conor O'Brien—mariner and circumnavigator—once lived. Dolphins cross sometimes. The light is the thing: estuary light, always changing.
Still standing
The Terminal
The terminal building from 1939 is still there, now home to the Foynes Flying Boat Museum. It has been updated—the cinema was rebuilt in 2023, the exhibits refreshed—but the bones are original. Walking into it is walking into the 1940s. The radio room, the weather office, the manifest books, the photographs of crew and passengers: all still in place. It is one of the few places on the island where you can stand in a building and feel the exact moment when the world was smaller.