Niall O'Connor

THE GENERAL IN charge of the Irish Air Corps warned in an email that preventing an Irish air display team from taking part in a British air show would risk “potential reputational damage” to the Defence Forces.

He made the comment as part of a thread of emails discussing a bureaucratic disagreement about how the trip by the Irish team could be facilitated. 

The Silver Swallows, a display team operating out of Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnell, Co Dublin, were invited to go to the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Waddington, Lincolnshire, to fly with the world-renowned Red Arrows during the British forces’ RAF Family Day.

The group, drawn from the training wing of the Air Corps, are a familiar presence at events in Ireland, and are known for performing flyovers during national commemorations such as 1916 memorials. 

The plan for the prestigious British event was to see the four PC-9s of the Irish Air Corps fly in formation with the RAF team.

The Silver Swallows needed technicians and specialist equipment such as smoke canisters for the air show. The Defence Forces requested permission for an additional aircraft to transport the ground staff, but the Department of Defence said no. 

In documents obtained by The Journal, there is a two-week back-and-forth between the military and the Department of Defence aviation unit as they attempted to decide on how the trip could be facilitated. 

The interactions were between senior officers in Defence Headquarters, the Irish Air Corps and civilian officials in the Department of Defence. 

An internal Defence Forces business case said the attendance of the Irish aircraft was to be a “significant focal point” of the air show. The document, which lays out why the activity should be permitted, also said attendance at the show would assist in recruitment and expansion of the Air Corps to an Air Force.

The language was professional and civil throughout the interactions, but there was a clear insistence by civil servants that the requests for various additional transport for technicians and equipment would not be met. 

Sources have said the RAF link up is part of a broader effort to engage and build relationships with the British. Sources described such engagement as “soft power” or military diplomacy and of value as it establishes a way for the Air Corps to have connections that can be used in times of crisis. 

A Defence Forces X post after the event made a similar point and showed images of the team in the air with the Red Arrows – albeit with out display smoke.

Last weekend the Silver Swallows, the Irish Air Corps aerobatic display team, flew at two of the Royal Air Force's Lincolnshire stations: RAF Waddington, home of the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, and RAF Coningsby, home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Our Flying Training School instructors flew their full PC-9M display for the Waddington families as part of the station's Friends and Families Day 2026, before joining the Red Arrows for a special joint flypast over the station, the first time the Silver Swallows and the Red Arrows have flown together in formation. The team also flew a full display at Coningsby, four years on from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's own visit to Casement Aerodrome for our centenary. The Silver Swallows are a team with history on this side of the Irish Sea. The first four-ship Fouga Magister display flew over Casement Aerodrome in 1982 for the 60th anniversary of the Air Corps, and in 1997 the team won the Lockheed Martin Cannestra Trophy at RIAT for the best flying demonstration by an overseas participant. Today the same instructors who train our future aviators at Casement Aerodrome fly the display, and this weekend they wrote a new line in that history alongside the Reds. The visit continues a relationship that has grown steadily in recent years, from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Red Arrows at Casement in 2022, to the Reds opening Bray Air Display with us in 2023, and 101 Squadron's C295 at RAF Lossiemouth in 2024. Our thanks to the Station Commanders and teams at RAF Waddington and RAF Coningsby for the welcome, and to the Red Arrows for the formation.

— Óglaigh na hÉireann (@defenceforces) October 1, 2026

In the past it would be for the minister for defence to give permission for the aircraft to leave the country but in recent years that power was devolved to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, meaning it was Lieutenant General Rossa Mulcahy who gave permission for the display aircraft to attend.

The initial plan was for the four PC-9s to fly over and that then a PC-12 aircraft would bring technicians and equipment, including specialist display smoke canisters. 

A senior officer in Baldonnell completed a business case for the visit, and it was then he discovered that the PC-12s were not cleared to fly due to missed maintenance deadlines. The issue has been extensively covered by this news website in the past and was reported on the day of the air show.  

Another option was then requested in which the Airbus 295 cargo variant, which was sitting idle in Baldonnell, would be used to transport the technicians and the equipment. 

This was turned down too. The next fix offered by military officers was that the technicians and their kit would travel by ferry to Britain and then by road in a transit van.

This was also refused, and the next plan was to put the technicians in the back of the PC-9s and fly them over to Waddington. That succeeded, and the aircraft flew to the British base. 

Brigadier General Rory O’Connor came in at the end of nearly two weeks of wrangling in emails to warn of reputational damage if the display was not to go ahead. 

This interaction came just two hours after The Journal made a media query about the issues faced by the Silver Swallows. 

In an email to a more senior Defence Forces general and a senior Department of Defence official, O’Connor said: “While not ideal, tech support has been reduced on this occasion to facilitate the display taking place and reduce potential reputational damage”.