 No 1 Fighter Squadron was stationed there in 1944 and were equipped with Hawker Hurricanes.After the war the Hurricanes were replaced with Spitfires in 1947, and in 1956 the Fighter Squadron was transferred to Baldonnel Aerodrome, whilst an Air Corps training faculty remained at the station.Due to the escalation in civil strife in Northern Ireland in the summer of 1969, Gormanston was designated as a refugee centre in August 1969.