Amelia Earhart's descendants finally visit landing spot

The great nephew of aviator Amelia Earhart has fulfilled a lifelong dream to stand in the exact spot in Northern Ireland where she accidentally landed 93 years ago after an ill-fated, trans-Atlantic solo flight.

Paul Morrissey travelled from Boston to the site at Ballyarnett, in Londonderry, where his famous ancestor had landed in "Gallagher's field" in May 1932.

It was a trip that he had always wanted to do with his grandmother and Amelia's sister, Grace Muriel Earhart Morrisey, but she died before they could.

"It feels like I am finishing a journey," he said.

When Paul was a young boy, he and his grandmother would often go to events across the United States to honour the aviation pioneer.

They travelled from Hawaii to California and many places in between and a visit to Derry was on their to-do list.

Unfortunately, Grace passed away in 1998 and never made it to Northern Ireland with Paul.

So, recently, when Paul was planning a family trip to Ireland, a friend, who is originally from Derry, suggested he could make his dream come true.

And when he finally did this week, it was an emotional moment.

"My grandmother would feel like I have completed a task, it is such an honour," he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

For his son James, it was special visiting the site as they had been travelling to Amelia Earhart events, just as Paul and Grace did before she died.

"They [Paul and Grace] always wanted to come to Ireland and that was going to be their final thing but they didn't have enough time to do it together so it feels really special for me to be able to complete the trip with my father," James said.

The father and son had just completed a trip to Grace's ancestral home, which was also the home of Amelia, before coming to Derry.

"This a great way to finish it up to see where she landed," Paul said.

• Amelia Earhart had taken off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland in Canada, in a bid to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

• Hoping to land in Paris, bad weather and technical problems altered her course.

• On 21 May 1932, her 14-hour journey ended abruptly when she was forced to bring her Lockheed Vega 5B plane down in the Gallagher family's field at Ballyarnett, on the northern edge of Derry.

• She stayed the night with the Gallagher family, before traveling on to London, and then heading back to the US.

• Mrs Gallagher told the BBC in 1935 when Ms Earhart landed, the only thing she wanted was a telephone to tell her husband she had landed safely.

• Earhart later wrote that having landed without any money, Mr Gallagher, "owner of the field in which I landed, assured me, however, that I had no occasion to worry about money 'as we will see you through'".

Elish Quigley and Nicole McElhinney, from the Amelia Earhart legacy association accompanied the family to the Ballyarnett site and explained what it must have been like when Amelia accidentally landed there back in May 1932.

Paul wondered what sort of reception his aviator great aunt would have received.

"Women back then didn't really drive planes, they just drove cars and when she landed there was a farmer who was smoking a cigarette and because of the aviation fuel, she had to ask him to put the cigarette out," Nicole said.

Paul laughed.

"They couldn't believe there was a women standing who had just popped out of this wee red plane, it was just fantastic," said Nicole.

"Paul kept the memory of Amelia alive and now we have this fantastic story attached to our story in Derry as well" said Eilish.

Visit complete, the Morriseys will now fly back to the United States with a renewed determination to keep alive the memory of one of the best-known aviators of all time.

"Its extremely special that I can pass this onto my son, like my grandmother did to me and carry on the legacy of Amelia," Paul said.