Very special advice from the Memory Man himself
HAVING known Jimmy Magee for close on 50 years, I always found him a mine full of knowledge, not alone in sport, but in other subjects. It was a pleasure to meet him and his jovial smile and greeting would make your day.
At the start of our friendship, when I worked in the media, I mentioned to Jimmy that I was going to Croke Park on that coming Sunday. Jimmy took his jotter from his jacket pocket and with his pencil on a fresh page, told me how to keep an account of any game.
‘You start by dividing your page, by drawing a line down the centre of the page – home team on the left and the away team on the right side of the page. Then taking a note of the time events have happened and editing your notes at the end.’
Jimmy, by now I’m sure you have located Con Houlihan up there and are deep in conversation.
EDWARD MAHON, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.
Solving housing
IN the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Waterford City Council built a huge amount of local authority houses, the evidence of which can be seen today in Ard naGreine, Congress Place, Dominic Place, Griffith Place, Leamy Street, Sexton Street, and Upper Yellow Road among others.
Families on the Local Authority waiting list were allocated a house based on their need – number of children etc – taking them from flats (today’s apartments) the rents of which were properly controlled. It is no use telling families who are homeless that rents cannot rise more than 4% over the next two years if they haven’t a hope of paying it at present levels.
This was at a time when Ireland was on its knees, poverty-stricken, but I never saw or heard of a family on the streets back then.
Market forces will not solve the housing crisis. Market forces suggest selling to the better off at an inflated and unjust profit, simply because they can, while depriving those at the lower end of the pay scale of a roof over their heads to which they are entitled.
Of course, it is necessary to support business but a government is also judged on ‘how it looks after the most vulnerable of its people’. Morality needs to be brought back into the equation.
Furthermore, ‘our home is our castle’ modest though it may be. It was bought and paid for in tough times and I challenge the right of anyone or any authority to force the sale of it while I or my husband are still alive.
KATHLEEN CROTTY, Portlaw, Co. Waterford.
Lycra louts
I AGREE with Philip Nolan (Mail, Friday) on all points, but he omitted that cohort of road users that have come to be known as ‘lycra louts’ who have little or no regard for other road users or pedestrians.
They are often to be seen holding up a line of traffic on Irish roads, especially at the weekends! It’s great that the Government want more people to cycle but there seems to be no thought about whether people are competent: make a cycling proficiency test compulsory – akin to a driving test – and maybe a cycling licence with a small fee attached.
R MALONE, via email.
O’Leary will learn
MICHAEL O’Leary is Michael O’Leary, a singular ‘one off’ mega-successful multi-millionaire businessman.
Single-handedly, he revolutionised air travel costs, so that memories of Aer Lingus and their skies monopoly tend to be forgotten... but not by this octogenarian who flew regularly from Melbourne to London for £650, only to be then ‘screwed’ for £250 by Aer Lingus to travel across to Dublin.
To his credit, he also stays in Ireland and pays Irish taxes and despite his Clongowes Wood education, available only to the very rich, he has an understanding of the ordinary people, even if only seeing them as a cog in the profitmaking ‘Capitalist Machine’ that is Ryanair.
I never have travelled Ryanair, finding his rules and regulations too complicated, but millions do. With Michael O’Leary there is never ambiguity, seldom obfuscation and, as long as passengers remember this dictat, then flying Ryanair can be satisfactory.
Everything in the Ryanair handbook is based on one singular fact: profit. Seat space, seat charges, baggage costs, ticketing, quick plane turnaround... Michael O’Leary is always thinking of shareholders and profit.
It is always ‘his way or the highway’ as vividly illustrated in his row with ace racing trainer Willie Mullins and his removal of horses from Mullins over a possible hike in training costs.
The present crisis for Ryanair will cost umpteen millions in compensation, but if there is a world shortage of pilots, denied by Michael O’Leary, then his control over his pilots may be lessened.
The situation created by cancellations has been a PR disaster and O’Leary is probably right by maintaining this problem is ‘a blip’, and airline experts agree that Ryanair is strong enough to overcome this immediate problem.
However, there is a well-known business maxim, ‘markets once lost are not easily regained’, and many of the thousands of inconvenienced passengers may think twice before flying Ryanair again.
JOHN KELLY, Clontarf, Dublin 3.