Ryanair. - Michael OLeary: a life in full flight

Michael OLeary

A Life in Full Flight

Alan Ruddock, a contemporary of Michael OLearys at Trinity College, Dublin, is a former business journalist with the Sunday Times and former editor of the Scotsman. He is currently a commentator with the Sunday Independent, Irelands largest-selling newspaper.

A Life in Full Flight

ALAN RUDDOCK

PENGUIN

IRELAND

PENGUIN IRELAND

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First published 2007
1

Copyright Alan Ruddock, 2007

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EISBN :9780141902494

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order.

Niccol Machiavelli

Business books are bullshit and are usually written by wankers.

Michael OLeary

Michael Gerard Joseph Mary OLeary was named after a grandfather, a grandmother, his own mother and the Virgin Mary. The names reflected the familys traditions rural, Roman Catholic, conservative and Michael OLearys early life was steeped in the values of home and family.

Born on 20 March 1961 in a maternity hospital in Dublins Hatch Street, on the site of what became the office of the Euro Changeover Board, the second child and first son of Timothy (Ted) and Gerarda OLeary would be one of six children three girls and three boys. For the first ten years of his life the family lived in a comfortable red-brick house in the centre of Mullingar, before moving to the greater freedom of Lynn, on the outskirts of the town, where his parents still live. No matter where they were, however, the rules were the same.

Each of the girls got their own rooms and the three boys were always in a black hole of Calcutta, Michael OLeary has recalled. We didnt understand at the time. Apparently boys didnt need their privacy at all so we roomed together in the slum. The girls all had their rooms and they were all decorated in flowery wallpapers and posters of pop stars. We were always left in one room together to fight it out amongst ourselves.

Both his parents hailed originally from Kanturk, a small town in County Cork, where his mothers parents were prosperous farmers. Timothy and Gerarda met and courted in their hometown, and were married in nearby Adare, County Limerick, in October 1958. Immediately afterwards they struck out on their own for a new life in the midlands, moving to Ballinderry, in County Westmeath, where Timothys parents had helped launch Tailteann, a textile business, in the 1940s. Their new dream was not a farm, but business: Timothy was taking responsibility for his parents textile business. Along with two local dentists and their wives, Timothy was now a major shareholder in the knitwear company located in Mullingar, Westmeaths county town, which lies about fifty miles west of Dublin.

Tailteann Textiles was a challenging venture. Ireland in the late 1950s was an economic backwater, a country that relied heavily on agriculture and that had failed, in its first thirty-five years of independence, to develop an industrial base. For Mullingar, a market town with a population around 5,000, the Tailteann factory had been an important development. It offered jobs at its peak the factory employed more than 120 locals and a sense of progress to a community that had lacked both.

Timothy OLeary, bursting with ideas, was determined to run a thriving business and to provide a stable home for his new wife and their children. The first child, Ashley Concepta, had been born a year after the wedding, to be followed by Michael two years later. By the time their third child, Eddie, was born in 1962, Timothy had become more than just a shareholder, taking over as factory manager that year. A keen golfer, he had quickly become a well known and much liked figure in the local golf club, which at the time was considered one of the finest courses in the country.

At the time there were very few wealthy men around, said Albert Reynolds, an old family friend who went on to become the Irish prime minister. Like the rest of us, he was working. But he was always very well dressed and had a good car and all of the family were always well turned out.

Gerarda OLeary was typical of her generation devoted to her family, deeply religious and fiercely protective of her children, particularly her sons. Donie Cassidy, who was a friend of Timothy and Gerarda and is now a member of the Dil representing the people of Westmeath, remembers Gerarda as very religious and heavily involved in the local prayer group. She wouldnt suffer fools lightly, and she certainly would be in no way accepting of anything except the highest standards. Cassidy believes Gerarda was the dominant figure behind her husbands successes: She was the driving force; she was one of the most determined people I ever met, he said.

Michael OLeary recalls, She was the stay-at-home mother, six kids, no help. Looking back I dont know how anybody did it, except they all did it in those days. But then she was very good. Shed do the garden, she was big into gardening and decorating houses, she was good at it. And with six kids they were frequently decorating houses. Wed trash the place, he says.

Her influence remains a potent one. One former colleague remembers that Michael only put on a suit when she was coming to Dublin.

In September 1965, aged four and a half, Michael OLeary started school in St Marys, a local national school for boys and girls. After three years he moved to the all-boy environment of the Christian Brothers school in Mullingar.

The Christian Brothers at that time often made heavy use of corporal punishment, but OLeary does not recall a particularly violent schooling. I was only seven years old but I dont think of myself as an abused or a battered soul, he says, but if I did get a belt I certainly got my spelling right the next day.

Classmates recall OLeary as someone who was able to defend himself. You always got the impression he was well able to stand up for himself; he would never let himself be put down, said one. He wasnt the type to get into fights but he wouldnt let himself be put down.

There were more than 400 boys in the school and class sizes were large. There were between forty and forty-five boys in any one class, says Fergal Oakes, one of OLearys early teachers and now principal of the school. A classmate claims there were more than sixty boys crammed into one of their years.