Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum

Located in Foynes, Ireland, the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum preserves the history of aviation and maritime activities in the region, including the invention of Irish Coffee.

Planning your visit

Foynes was, for a few years, the most important airport in Europe — and it had no runway. Between 1939 and 1945 this small Shannon estuary village was the eastern terminus for transatlantic flying boats, the last landfall before the Atlantic crossing, and passengers on the Pan Am and BOAC services passed through: Roosevelt's envoys, John F. Kennedy, Ernest Hemingway, Humphrey Bogart, Douglas Fairbanks. Ireland was neutral, which made the traffic through here diplomatically peculiar and historically fascinating.

The museum occupies the original terminal building and radio room, restored with the equipment in place, and its centrepiece is a full-scale replica of a Boeing 314 Clipper — the only one in the world — which visitors board to see the cabins, the lounge and the flight deck of the largest airliner of its era.

Irish coffee was invented here. In 1943 a chef, warming passengers after a flight turned back in bad weather, added whiskey to their coffee; asked whether it was Brazilian, he said it was Irish coffee. The museum has a dedicated exhibit and demonstrations of the original recipe.

Foynes is around forty minutes from Limerick. Allow two hours. Bookable options include sidecar tours of County Limerick that incorporate the museum, which suits a full day in the region. Current availability is listed below.