Galway Bay fm newsroom - The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland will be in Connemara next week to launch the Alcock & Brown 100 Festival (15/6).
Next year marks a century since the first non-stop transatlantic flight in history landed in a bog a few kilometres south of Clifden.
Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown set off from Newfoundland in Canada on June 14th 1919 in a modifed bomber.
Over 16 hours later - and after several near-fatal incidents in grueling conditions - they crashed in a bog at Derrygimla near Clifden.
June of next year will mark 100 years since the historic achievement - and a special festival will take place in Connemara to mark the occasion.
The Alcock and Brown 100 Festival will take place in Clifden from the 12th to the 16th of June 2019.
However, the Festival will be officially launched next week by Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin Vickers.
The launch will take place at the Market Square in Clifden on Friday June 15th at midday.
