Does - or did - Ireland ever have an air force?

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but while flying around over Ireland in FS I opened FSNav, and sure there was an airbase shown on the map. Never heard about Ireland having an air force, so I was puzzled :-shy ...Anybody enlight me here?

[Guest]

The Irish Republic has an Air Corps:http://www.military.ie/aircorps/aircraft.htmNeil

[Guest Dominik Mann]

Most interesting indeed...I gather the Irish Air Corps has no airspace protection function, though?

[Guest]

Hi Dominick,I'm not really sure, as I am over in the UK (in the Royal Navy) and have only met Irish Navy personnel.I believe that they are heavily into fishery protection and coastguard type activities though.NeilPortsmouthUKCurrently building a bird house by order of the missus.

[Guest John Massey]

Is the so-called 'airbase' Casement? If so, that's not actually an airbase. The Irish Air Corps are based there, indeed, but it's mainly used for private jets etc. For example, I think the Irish Government fly their Gulfstream in there.Also, I'm pretty sure nothing flies in there at the moment because, from what I hear, the main runway is in some state of disrepair and has been closed down until it is fixed up.There is also an airshow on there every few years. It's quite a good one too. ;-)Johnhttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d71232016583a0a.jpgImages