O’Leary hits Knock at full throttle

Dublin GAA, Aer Lingus passengers and Micheál Martin all found themselves in the firing line during Michael O’Leary’s whirlwind tour of Ireland West Airport.

The flamboyant, pugnacious CEO of Ryanair was there for less than an hour last Tuesday but moved through the terminal like Road Runner – in fifth gear from the moment he stepped off the Ryanair 737 as its sole passenger.

“Welcome to sunny Knock!” he declared as he descended the steps on a bleak day. He arrived wearing a Mayo jersey. After all, he is a one-man PR machine, and that became very clear as he strode around the airport.

Photographer Michael McLaughlin lines up a series of photos and O’Leary gives every pose imaginable – all gold.

“Who needs Sam when you’ve got Knock Airport and Ryanair!” declares O’Leary out the front of the terminal.

He strides inside and is directed to the shop. There, Mary McDonnell, who has worked at the airport for 20 years, is proudly wearing her Roscommon jersey and asks for a photo.

O’Leary pauses momentarily, scans the shelves, sees what he is looking for, grabs a souvenir hat and holds it over Mary, pointing to the hat for the pic. ‘Fecking eejit’ it says. O’Leary’s mind works at 100mph and he never misses an opportunity.

He is notoriously frugal. Famously, Ryanair founder Tony Ryan once left a note with O’Leary to make sure Ryan’s mother got a drink on a flight. O’Leary wrote a note back: ‘send £3’.

That he had brought a piece of crystal to mark the airport’s 40th anniversary was positively flaithiúlach by O’Leary’s standards.

But as the entourage of media, airport and Ryanair staff try to keep pace with O’Leary, the vase gets knocked over from a low seat and is about to smash onto the ground.

With the reaction speed of a man who hoovered up plenty of breaking ball for Charlestown Sarsfields back in the day, airport head of marketing Donal Healy somehow grabs it and holds it before it smashes into pieces.

O’Leary lets out an audible gasp of relief. Part of you would love to have seen the reaction, though, if it did smash.

He glides through the baggage queues with a word and a quip for everyone. One elderly man tells him he is going to Portugal for four weeks.

“You’re emigrating? Don’t go!” replies O’Leary with mock despair.

There follows a quick press conference within earshot of the baggage queues, some for Ryanair and others for Aer Lingus.

“You are all very welcome to Ireland West Airport, Knock,” he begins. “Or at least those of you who are flying with Ryanair are welcome. Those of you checking in with Aer Lingus, you are going to be delayed by about four hours, in fact you will be lucky if you get away at all!” 

Mayo football star Aidan O’Shea arrives at the airport, heading away for a few days after Mayo’s league campaign. The marketing gurus there make sure the two meet and clips go viral of O’Leary compelling O’Shea and Mayo ‘to get the job done this year’.

“Everybody I think would love to see Mayo win an All-Ireland,” he said in the press conference. “I think the most important thing is that Dublin don’t f***ing win the All-Ireland! Any of the other 31 counties would do me fine. You don’t need Sam Maguire when you have Knock and Ryanair here, Sam Maguire would just be the cream on the top.” 

He expresses his admiration for Monsignor James Horan, affectionately (we think) calling him ‘a lunatic’.

“They should bring back Monsignor Horan, he would get things done where Micheál Martin doesn’t!” he quipped.

And almost as quickly as he arrived, he was on the way again, filing through departures, high-fiving Irish fans heading to Prague and presumably taking a deep exhale once he was back on his plane.