Kildonan Aerodrome was opened in early 1930’s as Ireland’s First Commercial Aerodrome by Hugh Cahill, a wealthy motor dealer located in the northside of Dublin in Finglas village. His company was named Iona and when he decided to found Iona Airways in Casement Irish Air Corp Aerodrome (Baldonnel) he was more than welcome. But the Air Corp traffic was too frequent by 1932, it was decided Iona would have to move to Kildonan and found Ireland’s first civil aerodrome 2½ miles west of Finglas, (keeping in mind Aer Lingus wasn’t yet founded, never mind Dublin Airport).

So Hugh Cahill was granted the first civil aerodrome license in Ireland and Kildonan opened for business in autumn 1932. It was run by Hugh Cahill until 1934, when a new company named Everett Flying Services bought it, by now Kildonan was a state of the art Aerodrome. This Lasted Until 1936, when Lady Heath (Sophie Pierce) bought the aerodrome, which she had flown in since 1932. Lady Heath was an accomplished Olympic Athlete as well as a successful aviator, being the first woman to parachute and the first woman to get a B License to fly commercial flights, to name just a few of her aviation feats. This was the same year that Aer Lingus was started (1936), which by Kildonan’s closing in 1938 had really stolen most of kildonan’s business, operating from Collinstown Aerodrome, now Dublin Airport.