Dean Swift once said that "whoever makes two ears of corn grow where only one grew before" deserves the gratitude of mankind. The late Tony Ryan certainly managed to do that. He served Ireland and Tipperary well, both for his public inspiration as a great entrepreneur and for his many business achievements.
He also possessed what Swift called vision: "the art of seeing what is invisible to others". As a businessman he had a remarkable sixth sense. This gave him an insight into the opportunities that world aviation offered, and an ability to exploit them fully which he did during a business career that was never smooth, rarely predictable and always eventful. His success and ultimate failure at the airline leasing company Guinness Peat Aviation was later redeemed by his final business triumph. Ryanair, one of the world's most successful airlines, became his crowning glory and his lasting legacy.
Tony Ryan, the son of a CIÉ train driver, was born in Thurles in modest circumstances. When he left school at 16, he was endowed with few advantages, neither wealth, education nor social connection. Nevertheless, he became one of the country's most successful businessmen and one of its wealthiest. In his lifetime, Dr Ryan created two world-class businesses, while also acting as a generous patron of the arts and the founder of a business school. His legacy is a thriving Irish aviation sector which owes everything to his pioneering role in two areas of industry, aircraft financing and low-cost airlines. And his influence is apparent in the entrepreneurial flair of others whom he encouraged, like Denis O'Brien and Michael O'Leary. Mr O'Leary, his protege at Ryanair, described him as "one of the greatest Irishmen of the 20th century".
Dr Ryan met triumph and disaster with equal equanimity. In 1975, when he set up GPA, he invested €6,500 in the new enterprise, which by 1992 had become the biggest lessor of planes in the world. GPA had its financial wings singed when its stock market flotation failed. Investors were unwilling to buy highly priced shares in what they regarded as a high risk company. The failure of his life's work with the collapse of GPA became the spur for renewed effort and for greater achievement with the development of Ryanair as a low cost airline.
Ryanair has made air travel the norm for everybody today. It has benefited consumers, via low fares, as much as shareholders, through higher profits. George Bernard Shaw once remarked: "Others see things, and say why?" Like Shaw, Dr Ryan, dreamt things that never were, and said: "why not?". He made a difference.