Mr O’Leary is wrong – ceremony and ritual are important

When the history-books are written, it is quite likely that the most influential Irishman of our time will be Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair. Yes, Clongowes-educated Mr O’Leary has probably made more impact on our world than all the politicians, leaders and general celebrities put together.

He has made his low-budget airline the most dominant in Europe, even in the whole globe. If airports are always crowded, if people always seem to be flying off to some exotic location, if staff can commute from Barcelona and Berlin to Dublin, it’s because of Ryanair – and the competitive influence it has had on other airlines.

Mr O’Leary is such a colossus that it’s even been suggested that he should be President of Ireland, when the office falls vacant in November”

Emigrants can now fly home for the weekend – they don’t need to weep about the coast of the Emerald Isle disappearing forever, as in the old exiles’ laments.

Mr O’Leary is such a colossus that it’s even been suggested that he should be President of Ireland, when the office falls vacant in November.

But, in his robust manner, he has dismissed the idea and the position itself as “the most useless and overpaid office in the country.” The Presidency is, he says, “a makey-uppy job”.

His Jesuit teachers must have instructed young Michael in the pursuit of many goals, but they seem to have missed out teaching him about the Constitution, and the importance of ceremony and ritual in the governance of a nation.

An Irish President’s role is guardian of the Constitution and ceremonial head of state. Somebody has to embody what the British Constitutionalist Walter Bagheot called the ‘dignified’ role of governance.

The President’s role is to represent the nation without being directly political.

True, the present incumbent has sometimes sailed close to the wind in voicing his opinions; but overall, Mr Higgins has performed the ‘dignified’ role of Head of State with grace and authority. Even if he has been occasionally controversial, that can be a kind of safety-valve – saying what politicians dare not. The previous two Presidents, the two Marys, have also adorned and indeed elevated the office they occupied.

Prism

Mr O’Leary sees the world through the prism of business and management, so he misses the value of ritual and symbol. (If he must vote in the Presidential election, he’ll back Mairéad McGuinness – who has been a vocal opponent of Brexit, which O’Leary loathed, as being anti-business.)

Michael O’Leary is wrong – the job is far from ‘useless’ in a changing Ireland”

We will see a raft of candidates proposed for the role of Uachtarán, including Bertie Ahern, Francis Black, Michael McDowell, Catherine Connolly, Fergus Finlay, Heather Humphreys, Eurovision song host Linda Martin and even Fintan O’Toole. Some commentators are even suggesting it’s becoming a kind of parallel Eurovision contest.

But the growing speculation about the next Presidency shows that people are interested in the personality of who will represent the nation; and that the public feels involved.

Michael O’Leary is wrong – the job is far from “useless” in a changing Ireland, representing a national “identity” may be one of the most vital roles.

A mark of our time

A part from being Taoiseach and Prime Minister, what do Michéal Martin and Keir Starmer have in common?

They both made a point of wishing their Muslim electorate a happy Eid (the end of the Ramadan fast – occurring last Sunday and Monday).

This prompted a chorus of complaints on social media – some from Christians saying “What about us? Do we ever get a Happy Easter – or even an acknowledgement of Lent?”

It is indeed a peculiar mark of our time that politicians often go out of their way to show respect for Islam, while ignoring, or even seeming to abolish, Christian religious feasts.

Is this for a good or bad motive? Are they just keen to show kindness and hospitality to a sector of the public which is likely to have come from a migrant background? Ironically, is this a practice of a long Christian tradition: welcome the stranger and give hospitality, as St Paul preaches?

Or is it a cannier calculation about votes? As the Muslim electorate increases – and usually has higher fertility too – are the politicos just playing a shrewd numbers game?

Knowing the way a politician’s mind works (“is there an opportunity here?”) I may veer towards the second thesis!

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The earthquake in Myanmar, also affecting Thailand, is terrifying, and the suffering pitiful. One of the most afflicted places seems to be Mandalay, whose name hasn’t been changed since colonial times.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a famous poem, ‘Mandalay’, later set to music, but now condemned as colonialist, racist and sexist. By our measures, I daresay it is. Yet, I remember my mother playing it fondly on the piano, since her brother had served in Burma – as many Irishmen did. “On the road to Mandalay/Where the flyin’-fishes play,/An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!”

The poem is dated, yet it evokes affection for Mandalay, now so broken and destroyed.