Sir, – When I was a student in the 1970s, I worked at Dublin Airport during the holidays.
In those years, the airport managers had to cope with tight budgets, very basic infrastructure and serious security threats.
Throughout Europe, the danger to aircraft and airports from terrorist attacks was then very real. In December 1973, five Palestinian gunmen killed 34 people in an attack on Rome airport. Dublin Airport’s newly-built two-storey roof car park above Terminal 1 and the popular viewing platform over the Link Building were immediately closed after a grenade was thrown from a roof at Vienna Airport onto a plane below. In July 1974, a 2kg IRA bomb aboard a British Airways passenger jet flying from Belfast to London failed to explode. In November 1975, a UDA bomb in Dublin airport’s arrivals terminal killed a man and wounded others.
Dublin airport then, for its size, was very busy during the summer months. There was no CCTV and few, if any, security scanners were available. There were no computers or mobile phones and all administration was paper-based. Despite all the challenges, no passenger ever had to queue outside. – Yours, etc,
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KARL MARTIN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.
