Clifden

Abandoned generator shaft at Clifden

In 1907 Marconi chose this desolate spot in the far west of Ireland to erect the world's first commercial wireless telegraphy station and soon messages were flowing across the Atlantic without wires, making this little town a leader in both technology and communications. Naturally the Irish blew it up fifteen years later - though you have to be Irish to understand exactly how that bit of gratuitous vandalism advanced the cause of Irish independence.

The somewhat mundane work of keeping the station functioning was enlivened on June 14, 1919, when Alcock and Brown landed nearby after their epic first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Unfortunately they mistook the smooth surface of a peat bog for a suitable landing strip and made rather a mess of their plane, a fact tactfully passed over in silence by the nearby memorial!