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At around one o’clock in the afternoon of April 7th, 1943, a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, christened T’Ain’t a Bird landed in White’s Marsh, Clonakilty, West Cork, Ireland, with only three minutes of fuel left.

T'Aint a Bird in White's Marsh, Clonakilty Ireland. April 1943.

On board were a crew of ten men, one passenger, a monkey called Tojo and 36 bottles of rum. They had taken off that morning from Marrakesh en route to join the 8th Air Force at a base in England. A storm and a misleading radio report threw them off-course (there was no radar on the plane).

The crew stayed in O’Donovan’s Hotel for about four days before being taken by lorry up to Cork city ( Collins Barracks) and then the border with Northern Ireland where they were handed over to the RAF. Over a month later a portable runway was brought down to Clonakilty and the plane was flown out to join its crew in England. T’Ain’t a Bird flew its first, and last, mission in June 1943.

Irish Army tents in White's Marsh guarding the plane.

Miraculously the entire crew, along with the passenger, all survived the war after flying many combat missions. The monkey, alas, did not fare so well. Tojo died during the crew’s stay in Clonakilty and was given a funeral, with full military honours in the back of O’Donovan’s Hotel.

The landing was denied by both the US and Irish State, until 1986.Two years later The Warplane Research Group of Ireland put up a plaque on the front of O’Donovan’s Hotel to commemorate T’Aint a Bird’s extraordinary adventure.

The unveiling ceremony in front of O'Donovan's Hotel. Clonakilty 1988.

The first time I visited Clonakilty I was intrigued by the plaque and delighted to find memorabilia from the plane in a glass case behind the bar. The story of T’Aint a Bird stayed in my mind and after I moved to West Cork I decided to write a novel based on the landing. I researched the story both in the US and in West Cork. I found the three surviving crew members and had a delightful visit with Guy Tice (the young blonde fellow in the picture below) at his home in Ohio. Guy Tice was the top-turret gunner on whom the character of Les Wagner is loosely based (He chose the character’s name himself. Wagner was his mother’s maiden name).

The crew of T'Aint a Bird posing in the garden of O'Donovan's Hotel ( with Irish Army officer top row,right). Guy Tice is on the far left, second row.

Guy Tice visited Clonakilty again in 1997, fifty- four years after T’Ain’t a Bird landed. He stayed at O’Donovan’s Hotel.

Guy Tice was honoured by Clonakilty Town Council when he visited in 1997. Mayor Martin Kingston presents Guy Tice with a commemorative plaque.

Guy Tice enjoying a pint (with Martin Kellher) in the bar of O'Donovan's Hotel 54 years after the forced landing of T'Aint a Bird in Clonakilty.

Most people who know Clonakilty have heard about the landing. Photographs of the B-17 still hang on walls. Everyone knows that Eddie Collins was the first man to greet the crew. Tojo, the monkey, is still remembered. Stories and rumours abound (the thirty- six bottles of rum have grown to thirty-six cases in local legend). I listened to them all. Some I used, others I didn’t, mostly I just made it up. The characters and events described in Only a Paper Moon are entirely fictitious. I hope I will be excused when I bent the facts to suit the fiction (yes, I know they couldn’t have built a runway in just one day, so don’t bother to write and tell me!).

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