Some of you will remember a few weeks back John Hynes from the club was on here looking for help with regard Aer Lingus and LFC.Well John has passed me on the finished article and some pics. From the May edition of the LFC magazine. IRISH ROVERS Once upon a time Liverpool flew virtually everywhere with the same trustworthy airline. John Hynes re-lives the in-flight entertainment The great Peter Robinson, erstwhile club secretary and later LFC chief executive, explains how the link with the Irish airline came about… “The club had first entered European competition in August 1964 and during my first season at Anfield, 1965/66, they were using scheduled flights including those operated by BEA which later became British Airways. “The problem with being tied to scheduled flight times was that you could end up being away for two, three or, in the case of Iron Curtain trips, four days. So I suggested to the board that we should charter our own flights so that we could travel at times to suit us and drastically reduce time spent away. “Memories of Manchester United’s Munich disaster on a charter in 1958 were still fresh in people’s minds so quite understandably there was some resistance to my suggestion, including from the manager Bill Shankly. Eventually though the board agreed to my suggestion to charter and I asked several carriers to quote me prices. In the 1966/67 season we had a KLM charter to Romania to play Petrolul Ploesti and a BEA charter to Amsterdam to play Ajax. “The reason we switched to Aer Lingus was down to Jim Kennefick, who was in charge of their new office in Liverpool. Jim’s a charming man who became a friend of mine and later joined the club staff as supporter liaison officer. He used to came to Anfield to see me and usually after my secretary had gone home – ensuring that he’d get in to see me! He told me what Aer Lingus could offer and we decided to go with them not because of friendship but because they quoted us the best price.” Liverpool’s first charter trip into Europe with Aer Lingus was on a propellered Vickers Viscount airliner for a Fairs Cup game in Malmo in September 1967, the launch of a long and successful link with the Irish carrier. “It proved to be the start of a very enjoyable and efficient relationship, with the on-board food and standard of service top-class, “ adds Robinson. “And Bill Shankly and the training staff were very pleased that by using charters we could drastically reduce our time abroad to just one night “Although the opposing club in Europe had to allow you to train at their stadium the night before the game, some could be awkward and make things difficult. So we decided on a pattern of the players training at Melwood in the morning before flying out early afternoon so that they didn’t need a session at the stadium on the eve of the game. We honed our European travel to a fine art.” Captain Barney Croghan was the pilot for the majority of LFC’s journeys with Aer Lingus… “Initially I wasn’t interested in football – or soccer as it’s mainly referred to in Ireland. Rugby union was my game. But my son was a mad keen Liverpool fan and I took him to a match. While at Anfield we met Peter Robinson and got chatting about an upcoming UEFA Cup game with Dynamo Dresden. He asked if I’d be interested in taking the flight and when they put in the order he requested me as pilot. Then I travelled over to the home leg at Anfield too. “That was 1976 and I was immediately hooked on LFC. From then on I went to lots of games through work and as a fan. There were even times when I wasn’t on duty but I’d still put on my uniform and get on the plane just to go to the match. I’d be down the back handing out food and drinks to the press lads, directors and players. “The players were supposed to sit up near the front, but Jimmy Case and Ray Kennedy claimed to be nervous fliers and asked if they could be seated near the back because they’d read it was the safest place to be. Coincidentally it meant Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran couldn’t see what they were doing. “Over the years I got to know a lot of the players very well. Graeme Souness even bought me a bottle of champagne for my 40thbirthday. “Aer Lingus always looked after the travelling party very well. There was plenty of fine food and some nice drinks on the return journey. It was a very warm relationship between the airline and LFC. I’m not 100 per cent sure but I think the team never lost a two-legged tie when they flew with us. “Naturally other airlines wanted the business – transporting the champions of Europe was very prestigious. I think some of them complained about the set-up because they felt an English club should go with an English airline. Technically they were correct – we didn’t have permission to fly into Liverpool from Dublin and pick up passengers. However the arrangement continued for a long time. “It was so good that when Liverpool came to Dublin to play in friendlies, which they did quite regularly, a lot of the airline staff would go along. After one of those, Kenny Dalglish got separated from the rest of the squad so I drove him to the hotel where the players were having a night out. On the way we found ourselves going in the wrong direction on a one-way street. A policeman stopped us and he didn’t look too impressed until he spotted my passenger. Immediately he halted the traffic and waved us through. “LFC became a big part of my life. I went to the European Cup finals and watched them play all over the continent. It was a wonderful time for the club and for me.” Thanks to: John Keith, Barney Croghan, Paddy Kilduff, Pat Coakley, Mrs. McNeish, Bob Boles, John Orohoe, Tony White and Liz Howard HOW BARNEY FOUND RONNIE Former Reds midfielder Ronnie Whelan almost never made it as a Liverpool legend, as Barney Croghan recalls: “In 1979 Peter Robinson told me to look out for a young footballer from Dublin who would be on the same flight as me over to Liverpool, coming over for a trial at the club. I noticed he wasn’t onboard just before take-off time so I went to find him. Ronnie was wandering around the duty-free section of the airport. Thankfully we managed to get on the plane in the nick of time.” TURKISH DELIGHT Barry Crowley was part of the ground operations staff for Aer Lingus – “which meant that I travelled as a loadmaster to various unusual locations, anything from carrying lamb carcasses to Libya, to UN troops to Cyprus to ships crews to Malta. “One journey was a Liverpool FC flight to Turkey for a game with Trabzonspor in 1976. The airport nearest the stadium was too small to handle a Boeing 737– I think the runway there might have been just a grass strip. So the decision was made to fly with Aer Lingus as far as Ankara and then to transfer to a smaller local carrier for the final leg of the journey. “It meant that the airline staff didn’t go to the game. We stayed with the plane and during routine checks on the day of the match we noticed one of the wheels needed changing. The principle is the same as changing a tyre on a car but obviously on a much bigger scale. I ended up splitting my trousers while helping to lift the main wheel back into the cargo hold. “Stocking the plane with drink for the flight back to England was also a challenge. The local catering services were unable to supply what we’d asked for, so it meant a trip to the duty-free shop. A member of the LFC party did comment on the price of the alcohol. However I recall looking out of the galley to see how the champagne had been received and getting the thumbs-up from the same person. “That was the only LFC flight I did. The rest of the crew were regulars and seemed to get on with the players and staff very well. When I got back to Ireland and people asked me how the game went I couldn’t tell them anything First pic is of Captain Barney with Grobbelaar. 2nd is Barney and Aer Lingus crew at Lpool airport. The last one is a few different images from Barney's collection of photographs.