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news
Michael O’Leary, licensed CC BY 2.0 by World Travel and Tourism Council.jpgRyanair CEO – “Take cyclists out and shoot them”
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has never been one to shy away from making controversial remarks – his latest being a suggestion that cyclists should be taken out and shot.
The businessman made his comments in a keynote speech at the Creative Minds conference at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin this morning, reports Independent.ie.
At the event, organised by the US Embassy, he took aim at the city council’s ambitions to get more people cycling.
"That's all we need in Dublin is more blooming bicycles," he said. "In a country where it rains about 250 days a year, the way forward for Dublin is more bicycles.
“Let's just go back to walking altogether. Soon we'll be living in caves designed by Dublin City Council. Traffic won't work, there's nowhere to park the cars and yet this is a smarter way forward.
“We should take the cyclists out and shoot them."
O’Leary lives in County Westmeath, around 55 miles from Ryanair’s headquarters at Dublin Airport.
"We should create a city that works given that this is a low rise, broadly based city and I speak as one of the commuters who commutes on a daily basis from Mullingar,” he said.
“I can't do it by bicycle ... I want to drive and I expect Dublin City [Council] to come up with a smarter way for me to get around Dublin and be able to park my car somewhere in the middle of Dublin without it being dug up every six weeks so we can have some other faddy non sustainable public transport solution.
"I hate to pick on Dublin City Council, but shit they're here and they deserve a slapping," he added.
In September at the inaugural Cycle Planning Awards, Dublin beat off competition from the London Borough of Southwark, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester and Coventry to be named the local authority with the most cycle-friendly policies for the Greater Dublin Area Cycle Network Plan. The citation read:
The project was completed in 2013 and published in April 2014 and set the challenging task of developing a strategic cycle network for the Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and Wicklow areas, known as the Greater Dublin Area. This plan was aimed at increasing this further and taking cycling to Northern European levels of usage over the coming five to 10 years, ambitious but in the context of over 100 per cent growth over the last five to 10 years achievable.
> Dublin among winners at Cycle Planning Awards
The city ranked 15th in the 2015 Copenhagenize Index of the world's most bicycle-friendly cities, with the urban design company behind the ranking saying that "the city has been inspirational for the rest of the world in its efforts to increase cycling levels."
Last year, Ryanair was widely derided on social media when it trumpeted price reductions in extra charges for carrying sports equipment which for a bicycle actually increased the cost per flight from €50 to €60.
> Ryanair "reduces" bike fee from €50 to €60, flies into cloud of Twitter derision
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- levestane 2 sec ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyhz4q-5NKA gives some options.
- brooksby 14 min 26 sec ago
Why don’t cyclists use the cycle paths? #14,902...
- brooksby 54 min 24 sec ago
Nope - had an urgent appointment with his tax advisor
- brooksby 58 min 19 sec ago
I'm not sure which one of them looks more like a crook…
- OnYerBike 1 hour 31 min ago
It might not be Miche-specific, but across all the thru-axle, disc brake wheelsets in my household (including Hope, DT Swiss and Bitex hubs), none...
- S.E. 3 hours 42 min ago
That made me think of that "Hot Fuzz" comedy movie... so many truths in it.
- Rendel Harris 5 hours 35 min ago
Good to see a V-brake option available for all those people who ride Cosmic Elites with V-brakes...seriously, you must know really that the answer...
- mattw 6 hours 13 min ago
Get thyself over to Buildhub - a community owned forum where I am on the moderation team ("Ferdinand") which is about self-build and renovation....
- Destroyer666 16 hours 17 min ago
Nonono, not those, but those that have constructed Italian cars and motorcycles that have been driven to hundreds of race and championship...
- RoubaixCube 16 hours 25 min ago
This may well be the case although Im unaware of the brands popularity on their home turf. I used to see them being advertised more in the UK...
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100 comments
Millionaire business owners, eh? I reckon we should line them up against a wall and .... Oh hang on...
Should he not be prosecuted for incitement to murder?
YES
Is this a joke?
edited: well at least one numbskull (dropped ... probably on his head as a baby) fell for it. Chapeau!
Yet another reason not to fly by RyanAir.
Wish I'd kept my virtual mouth shut now. But I still feel that saying in a public forum that any group or individual should be killed for a completely legal activity is unacceptable IMHO & effectively a "hate" crime.
Context is everything. Had he screamed the same thing at a rally of angry motorists wielding burning torches about to take to the streets, there might be a case for charges of inciting violence or behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.
But he didn't. He said it at a conference. Where the audience probably thought he was a twat.
He does not mean a word of it. He has placed no one in danger.
He said it to get free publicity via his usual role of pantomime
villaintwat.I agree. If it's technically not a hate crime, is it not, at least, incitement to disorder or something similar?
Futhermore, I'd suggest (seriously) that rather than sitting around writing insults about him, would it not be more constructive to collectively petition Road.cc, Cycling UK (former CTC) Sustrans, LCC etc to take a joint legal action against him for what he's said, if grounds can be established? If, as I suspect is the case, he is an Irish citizen and the words were spoken in Ireland, than it might not be possible to take an action in UK courts. However, in those circumstances it might be possible to collectively sponsor an action in the Irish legal system (in conjunction with any Irish cycling organisation) if similar laws exist in that jurisdiction. It's quite possible that they do, given the Northern Ireland's and the Irish Republic's history of sectarianism and unrest.
Also, I suspect the new London Mayor might be in favour of creating a better, safer environment for cycling given his manifesto. He might have an opinion on the matter. Anyone London members of this forum fancy writing to their London Assembly member?
I think next I'll copy this to Cycling UK / CTC of which I'm a member. I see there are 99 posts to this forum. Collectively that's a loud voice.
Another lost customer. Prick
Well done to all the Dublin cyclist, you have them on the ropes, keep on keeping on!!
Entitled ignorant as*hole. Decides to live half-way across the country and voluntarily (he's one of the few people that could afford to live anywhere in Dublin) commute to Dublin in a polluting dangerous box of metal and demand that Dublin City Council provide him with handy and free car-parking. He must be saying this utter shite about cycling for publicity, but even so, his level of psycopathy is staggering.
Twat.
Knobber
After suffering from their notoriously bad handling of complaints last year (first they swerve the issue, than they swerve the issue again with another irrelevant reply and on a third attempt they do not even bother to reply at all anymore), funnily enough on a bike holiday to Mallorca, I swore to never-ever use Ryanair again. Now certified POS O'Reilly delivers another piece of what he will doubtlessly say is his sense of "humour" or "direct speak" only to make sure that I will never renege on that vow.
it's no wonder that ITV got rid of him from the EX-factor.
I've always liked Mr O’Leary…
Because he doesn't want to do it, noone else should! The logic of a twat!
I want to drive and I expect Dublin City [Council] to come up with a smarter way for me to get around Dublin and be able to park my car somewhere in the middle of Dublin.
Entitled.
If someone else said that I might get annoyed, but it's O'Leary, so I just laugh.
@darrenleroy: Not really. Your beliefs alter in response to new information, but you cannot consciously change them. You can change what you profess to believe but that is a different story.
Try it! Force yourself to truly believe that the earth is flat. You can't.
How are people discriminated against by what they believe? Surely it's what they profess to believe, unless people have developed the ability to read minds. Which they can change at any time, rendering your comments (as all your others) pointless.
Spectacularly thick! I don't even know how to begin to engage with this level of ignorance.
The dumb is strong in this one!
Spectaculary spanked by an incisive comment me thinks. Go home and cry with your mummy fool!
Please enlighten me. You can use short words so I am sure to understand.
I will give you a clue: often, what people profess to believe and how they act reflects their actual beliefs. This is called sincerity.
I will give you another clue: often people believe that they should stand by their beliefs regardless of the possible negative implications of maintaining a stance. This is called, conviction.
So for example, a person might prefer to be ... thrown to the Lions rather than deny the Christian beliefs, that they both have ... and amazingly profess to have ... at the same time!
Does being fed to hungry lions for sport for being a Christian count as discrimination based on belief? I think it does.
Can you think of any other examples from human history? Shouldn't be difficult. There are millions! How you have failed to notice this is completely beyond me.
I suggest you read more and ride less. Your IQ needs work.
It's your outward expression (ie, the profession) of your belief, not the internal (ie, the actual belief) that begets problems (ie, the discrimination). That was bikebikebike's point. It's hard to see how a genius would not have understood that.
And in Denseworld where you both live, the two things can be easily separated, belief and behaviour that reflects belief?
Furthermore in Denseworld, the nature of discrimination should not be defined by the victims, but the aggressor. All those stupid Christians thinking they were put to death for their beliefs were wrong. If only they had the good sense to keep their mouths shut they would have been fine. Isn't that called victim blaming?
This woman http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslim-woman-batman-niqab... in Denseworld is apparently not a victim of discrimination based on belief ... even though her twatface aggressor specifically mentions Christianity to justify his knobbishness....No it is her fault for having a lifestyle consistent with her beliefs. She needs to profess less apparently.
Hypocrisy is the way to go, people!
..... Only in Denseworld ...
But in Denseworld we expect an argument to be logical and clear. We're not very bright. So your floundering around changing the subject of the discussion, and resorting to insults just serves to confuse us. When you can put your argument into clear and short words that we can understand then maybe you'll be able to join us here.
What is your point? That people always profess to believe what they actually believe? If so, then your examples point to a clear case where this didn't happen. In the Roman Empire, when Christianity was becoming the dominant religion, there were a few times when due to the whims of successive emperors, it was extremely advantageous to be either a Christian or a Pagan (depending on the guy in power at the time). And, surprise, surprise, plenty of people changed their professed religion.
And when England became a Christian country, the decision was a mostly political one. The king did not suddenly convert, he was convinced a bit by his wife, then invited an envoy of the pope to come in and show him what conversion could do for him and the country. He went from professing to be a pagan one moment to professing to be a Christian in one moment. I hardly think that either of these were his actual beliefs.
Those are a few historical examples. Can continue if you like.
there are other ways in which people change their beliefs in the absence of new information. For example, by making conscious efforts to examine them, and to think them through rationally and objectively.
By contrast, true 'believers', at least the religiously or politically committed types, are notoriously unsusceptible to new information.
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