Madeleine O'Rourke

Madeleine O'Rourke (1951 – 2 June 2006) was an Irish aviator, aviation events organiser, and sound engineer.

Early life and family Madeleine O'Rourke was born Madeleine Byrne in 1951 in south Dublin. Her parents were Olive (née Poole) and Peter J. Byrne, who was an electrical engineer with the ESB. The family home was on Lansdowne Road, Dublin. She had one older brother. During the 1930s, her mother had been an amateur tennis champion at junior and senior level. She married Colm O'Rourke on 17 November 1972 in St Mary's church, Haddington Road, Dublin. They were both sound engineers in RTÉ. They had one daughter,

Flying career O'Rourke attended an air show in Ballyfree, County Wicklow, when she was 16 and was "completely hooked" on aviation. She joined the Irish Aero Club in 1971, one of only 6 women in the membership of 200. She was appointed social secretary, and when finances allowed she took flying lessons. She took her first solo flight in July 1972. She joined the Dublin Ballooning Club (DBC) with her husband in 1975, and later joined the Irish Ballooning Association. She became the secretary of the DBC in 1987, helping in the production of a short history for its ten-year anniversary. In her capacity as a DBC official she attended Irish Aero Club board meetings. She volunteered to be the organising secretary of a fundraising air show which had been proposed. O'Rourke and a team of volunteers staged the Air Spectacular, in Fairyhouse, County Meath, on 27 August 1978 as her first event for a budget of £500. She wrote a Masters thesis Flying for the Silver Screen and the Irish Story for an MA in Film Studies.

O'Rourke was awarded the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1980, for her contributions to Irish sport aviation. The World Aerospace Education Organization gave her their award in 1992 for leadership in aerospace education. In 1994, she was elected a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She died on 2 June 2006 in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin. Her husband donated her library to the Air Corps Flying Training School, which is now displayed at the Air Corps College.