The newly-renamed Ireland West International Airport, Knock, was shrouded in mist yesterday morning - or a heavenly cloud depending on whom you spoke to.
But the "white elephant on a foggy, boggy hillside in Mayo", as its detractors called it, is no longer dependent on the weather. Up to seven daily flights - almost twice that in the summer - now take off and land with computer guidance.
It was almost as if the weather was just another obstacle to be defeated by the wily Monsignor James Horan, who claimed modest ambitions: to build a dance hall, a basilica, and an international airport on Barnacogue Hill, 11km (seven miles) north of his parish at Knock.
Against all the odds, the wily monsignor managed to manipulate the volatile political landscape of the early 1980s and get his final ambition realised just months before his death.
The first commercial flights took place on October 25th, 1985, when three Boeing 737s landed to take pilgrims from the Knock Shrine Society to Rome and Loreto in Italy. According to chief executive Liam Scollan it was "an occasion when strong men cried". Yesterday was also an emotional day, with theatre group Macnas reciting to a beat of traditional music a specially commissioned chant about the resurgence of the west.
Recalling the words of Mgr Horan that "they said it couldn't be done", Mr Scollan said it was a day for those who have vision and "not a day for cynics".
One of the most vociferous cynics of Knock airport and a member of the government which pulled the plug on financing was Labour Party minister Barry Desmond.
Along with the late Jim Mitchell of Fine Gael, Mr Desmond argued that funding for Knock should be cut after €11.4 million was invested on the runway. Yesterday, as the next phase of the airport was being unveiled, Mr Desmond said from his Dublin home he would be making no public comment.
Affable as ever, Mr Desmond nevertheless said he had committed his papers "in relation to that debate" to the former editor of the Western People, Terry Reilly, who is preparing a book on the airport.