Richard Crosbie, the first Irishman to take to the skies, will be honoured at Ranelagh Gardens in the new year. The small public park in south Dublin was the site from which Crosbie launched his hydrogen balloon in 1785, becoming the first ever Irishman to become fully airborne.

Crosbie flew his balloon from Ranelagh to Clontarf, on Dublin's northside, in a remarkable feat of aeronautical engineering. The young Wicklow man's achievement came just 14 months after the Montgolfier brothers had invented the hot air balloon in Versailles, France.

Dublin city council is set to discuss in early January how best to honour the achievement of Crosbie. Councillors have expressed their hope that a suitable plaque can be erected at the site by 19 January, the anniversary of the event, although this may prove too tight in terms of time.

Local councillor Chris Andrews, who tabled the motion for Crosbie to be honoured, has said that it is "hugely important" for the event to be commemorated. Crosbie's flight was very significant and it was important to honour an Irishman who had been such an advanced scientific thinker, he said.

Crosbie hailed from Crosbie Park, near Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, and displayed an interest in engineering from a young age.

He enrolled at Trinity College, where he became renowned for his mechanical experiments.

He had often discussed the notion of flight by the time the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon in 1783. The French brothers created the first hot air balloon in the summer of 1783, and later that year launched a balloon containing a sheep, a duck and a rooster before a huge crowd, including King Louis XVI.

The first human flight took place in November 1783, when Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes flew for a distance of nine kilometres some 100 metres above Paris, in a journey that lasted 25 minutes.

The Montgolfier brothers' father had allowed his sons to opt out of the family business so as to concentrate on their inventions only on the agreement that they would never themselves fly the balloons.

Inspired by events in France, Crosbie set out to make his own flying device. Using hydrogen instead of hot air, he successfully launched several balloons containing animals out of Ranelagh Park before attempting the first human flight on Irish soil. One such flight, which departed Ranelagh with a cat on board, was later seen passing over the coast of Scotland, before descending near the Isle of Man.

The cat, along with the balloon itself, was rescued by a passing ship.

Amid much publicity and fanfare, a huge crowd descended on Ranelagh on 19 January 1785 to witness Crosbie's endeavour.

Ranelagh was then little more than a tree nursery on the outskirts of Dublin and police closed down several roads to cope with the crowd.

At 2.30pm, the flamboyant Crosbie . . . dressed in a long robe of oiled silk, a waistcoat, white satin breeches and a leopardskin cap . . . emerged and stepped into the balloon. At 17 minutes to three that afternoon, he ordered the ropes to be cut, beginning his journey across the city and becoming the first Irishman to take to the skies.