A balloon flight across the Irish Sea should be an easy matter, bearing in mind the prevailing westerly nature of our winds. The English Channel was crossed in early 1785, less than two years after the first manned balloon ascent, but several attempts that year to cross from Dublin to Wales failed. It was to be 30 years before the feat was accomplished.
Richard Crosbie, a prosperous gentleman from Co Wicklow, was the first to try. On a bright morning in May 1785 a large crowd gathered to watch his proposed ascent from what is now Collins Barracks in Dublin.
But Crosbie was a man of substance, over six feet tall and built to match, and the balloon was unable to lift the heavy aeronaut and his equipment. Rather than disappoint his audience, Crosbie invited the nearest suitable spectator, a lithe young lad called Richard McGwire, to take his place.
With McGwire aboard, the hydrogen-filled balloon was launched and drifted nicely out towards Wales, but it experienced difficulty and ended in the sea near Howth. McGwire was rescued and brought back to a hero's welcome in the city - but that other island was still a hundred miles away.
A Frenchman, Dr Potain, tried the following month. After a short sally in the right direction, he drifted south to Wicklow and sank ignominiously to Earth at Roundwood.
In July Crosbie went up himself, and after a bumpy start from Leinster Lawn he, too, headed in the right direction - but had to be rescued from the sea mid-channel.
It was a quarter of a century before the next endeavour. This time it was James Sadler, an English aeronaut who came to Dublin specially to try his luck. With great pomp and ceremony he ascended from the grounds of Belvedere House, Drumcondra, in October 1812.
Drifting north-east, he made it to the Isle of Man. There, changing altitude, he found a north-westerly wind to bring him over Wales. At the last moment, however, another change of wind blew him out to sea again, delivering defeat from the very womb of victory; he ditched the balloon and submitted to rescue by a passing ship.
Five years later James's son, William Sadler, succeeded. On July 22nd, 1817 - 183 years ago today - he ascended from Portobello Barracks in a balloon 70ft in diameter. After a trouble-free and uneventful voyage of six hours, he landed in a cornfield two miles from Holyhead on Anglesey. It was the only recorded successful landing after a crossing of the Irish Sea by air until the advent of the aeroplane.