100th anniversary of fatal air crash in Kildare is recalled

By Liam Kenny

Kildare was witness to the death in a flying accident of an officer from the new Irish State’s air force -- one hundred years ago this month.

Major T. J Maloney died when his plane crashed at Cherryville to the west of Kildare town on the morning of 22 September 1925.

The crash cast a shadow over the first large-scale manoeuvres of the new Irish Army.

The state came into being in 1922 but was quickly embroiled in a civil war which diverted the nation-building project until 1924. Even then there was instability when the army was riven by a mutiny as a cash-strapped government sought to slash the number of officers on the state payroll.

It was therefore 1925 before command level manoeuvres could be put in train to test all arms of the embryonic Defence Forces.

Military chiefs developed a scenario which saw a ‘red’ force sweeping across from the midlands to attack the Curragh Camp; a ‘blue’ force would form a defensive position between Kildare town and Monasterevin.

The Air Corps was called in to add realism to the exercise and Maloney was tasked with flying from the Curragh direction on the first morning of the exercise to observe ‘red’ force armoured cars advancing on Kildare.

Townspeople reported seeing his Bristol Fighter in the air above the town while witnesses near Cherryville spotted him flying low in the Cherryville area – so low that his wingtip snagged in a tree and his frail biplane plunged to the ground. He was fatally injured but his observer survived.

Major Maloney’s remains were taken to the Curragh Military Hospital for a post mortem. Some days later his funeral cortege departed the camp and accompanied by a military escort made the long and sombre journey to his home parish of Shanagolden, Co Limerick.

At just 26, he was one of the pioneers of aviation in Ireland and had briefly held the appointment of Officer Commanding of the Air Corps at Baldonnell.

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