Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary sparks outrage with 'rapists' comment

Mayo’s Ciara Mangan, founder of survivor support charity Beyond Surviving and one of Ireland's most prominent voices on sexual violence, has strongly criticised Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary after he described rival airlines as "rapists" at the company's annual general meeting in Dublin.

O'Leary told reporters ahead of the AGM that it was "absolutely" appropriate to use the term to describe competing airlines' pricing practices. He has since stood by the remarks.

Speaking about her reaction to the comments, the Castlebar advocate told The Mayo News that she initially struggled to process what she had heard.

"I just did not catch it at all. I didn't understand what he was saying. It was completely incomprehensible, really, so I had to kind of listen to it again," she said. "I couldn't believe how you could describe your competitors as 'high fare rapists.' I mean, it's just so lazy, tasteless, and just a shock factor — which is what he does anyway. But it was certainly below the bar."

Mangan said she had since spoken with other survivors connected to Beyond Surviving, who described the language as "uncalled for, extremely offensive, ignorant, and unacceptable."

She said the word carries a particular weight for survivors that O'Leary's comments stripped away entirely.

"It's such a meaningful word for survivors — something we struggle to say for years on end. And then he just flippantly uses it for his own agenda, with absolutely no consideration for the impact and the offence it will cause to so many people," she said. "My first reaction was that this certainly hasn't landed on his doorstep, or on anyone's in his inner circle — that was as clear as day."

Mangan said the comments reflected how far removed O'Leary appeared to be from the reality of sexual violence in Ireland.

"He's obviously so far removed from the prevalence of sexual violence in this country. Yeah — just pure tasteless and ignorant, really," she said.

Beyond the remarks themselves, Mangan said she was struck by the volume of public support for O'Leary that emerged online in the aftermath.

"Another shock was the actual support of what he was saying, and the outrage over the outrage — almost throwing your toys out of the pram," she said. "It really highlighted another underlying problem we have in society — that people clearly don't see the wrongdoing in using that terminology. It just highlighted the extra level of work that's ahead of us in terms of rape culture, bystanders, and the appropriate way of speaking about sexual violence."

She said comments on coverage of the story skewed more sympathetic to O'Leary than she expected. "There were quite a lot of comments leaning towards supporting what he said — 'just get over it,' things like that. But look, you'll get that. From my perspective, there was more outrage and more calls for him to be condemned for the terminology he used."

Mangan said that while some politicians spoke out against the comments, she believes the political response fell short given O'Leary's public profile.

"A few politicians did speak out about it yesterday, but in my opinion, not enough," she said. "I think other high-profile people should take the advantage of holding someone like him — with such a public presence — to accountability, because he has a large mic and his words spread very fast and wide."

Mangan said there was no shortage of alternative language O'Leary could have chosen, and argued the remarks ultimately missed their intended target.

"There was a ton of other words he could have used. What he said just made no sense in the context of what he was speaking about," she said. "The offence he obviously intended to cause to his competitors just rolled off their back — it landed completely elsewhere, because it didn't describe his competitors at all. It actually just offended a completely innocent cohort of people in Ireland."

She added that O'Leary's decision to stand by his comments rather than walk them back was itself troubling.

"He stood by his comments, and that was alarming as well," she said. "I won't be holding my breath anyway for any apology."