She married Colm O'Rourke on 17 November 1972 in St Mary's church, Haddington Road, Dublin.
[2] O'Rourke attended an air show in Ballyfree, County Wicklow, when she was 16 and was "completely hooked" on aviation.
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.
Later events took place on Baldonnel airfield, which had better facilities, but still required logistics of parking, ticketing, catering, and toilets for over 100,000 visitors.
They were complex events, for which O'Rourke acknowledged that the organisers needed "the patience of a saint, the arms of an octopus, and nerves of steel.
She continued her involvement in aviation, and was the first woman to fly a microlight in Ireland on Sandymount Strand in June 1980.
She was a researcher and assistant for a wide range of RTÉ radio programmes, with particular interest in aviation history, the most notable of which was the four-part Spreading our wings aired in October 2005 and presented by Gay Byrne.
[3] She wrote a Masters thesis Flying for the Silver Screen and the Irish Story for an MA in Film Studies.
[4] O'Rourke was awarded the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1980, for her contributions to Irish sport aviation.