Tallaght (Cookstown)
Just a few facts.
Number 25 Training Depot (RAF) Station September1918 to March 1919. Number 24 Training Squadron arrived May 1919 when training ceased at Collinstown and remained until August 1919. Detached Flight (C Flight, later 530 Flight) of 244 Squadron, Bangor August 1918 to 11 November 1918 with DH6s.
149 Squadron arrived Tallaght 26 March 1919. Disbanded 1 August 1919.
117 Squadron arrived Tallaght 23 March 1919 from Hooton Park, ner Liverpool with DH9s but continued on the following month to Gormanston.
141 Squadron arrived March 1919 from Biggin Hill with Bristol Fighter. Squadron moved to Baldonnel September 1919.
As well as training at Tallaght it had an anti-submarine warfare roll. Number 244 Squadron ‘C’ Flight deployed at Cookstown (Tallaght) it appears that The DH6s, at Tallaght operated in pairs. They would escort the mail boat, flying over it in circles until it reached the Kish Lighthouse, when the escort duty was taken over by the patrol flying from Anglesey.
Tallaght was found to be unsuitable because of high winds in the area not much flying after the RAF left in 1919. It had limited use after this date. The Irish Army did use it for a few years (1920s). Today you can still see little bits of the base. A row of stone cottages are still occupied at the Glen Abbey end of what was the Tec site, plus two smaller buildings that still face on to the Belgard road also at the old Glen Abbey site.
Tony, should have more on the air corps aspect of Tallaght.
