It’s none of our business whether Michael O’Leary qualified in anything or not anywhere.
How long did he have the news agents for? Berties main attributes were self preservation and negotiation.Actually, an interesting part of Matt Cooper's bio of Michael O'Leary was that no one in his class at Clongowes ever saw any sign of his future career in him then; still less all the profanity and publicity-seeking. He was a diligent student, got up earlier than others to help the priest prepare mass (I'll bet he got a few bob for that, off the books), played sport enthusiastically and didn't mouth off too much. It was much the same in TCD - where he basically got his head down at study, made a few pounds tending bar in a not too busy hotel and lived in an apartment shared by two sisters and owned by his father. He must have hit the top 10% of his class as Stokes Kennedy Crowley had the pick of graduates in mean 1982 and apparently he had no family influence to get 'pulled' in there unmeritoriously either.
I wouldn't doubt for a second that guys like O'Leary (then) would get through their ACA finals at the first jump. That he may have not bothered reflects the limited usefulness of the post-finals professional practice stint and the ACA shingle to someone just wanting to make money. He saw from his auditing of businesses that the money back then was in newsagents, bars and restaurants. When a suitable newsagent came on sale at the Walkinstown roundabout he got a loan, bought the business plus its associated premises lease and said goodbye to auditing and tax.
Poor old Bertie wouldn't be able to grind anyone of O'Leary's class - not in accounting, tax law, economics, econometrics, marketing, business psychology or entrepreneurship anyhow. Maybe in gombeenery, schnozzling, jiggery-pokery and waffling. I better say no more or Brendan will start worrying about losing his beloved house
How long did he have the news agents for? Berties main attributes were self preservation and negotiation.
Sounds like a good enough read as biographies go.About 3 years, 1985 - 1988.
After putting the profits of Walkinstown into buying 2 more newsagents, he got visited by Tony Ryan.
A profit-share agreement rather than salary was made on O'Leary managing some of Ryan's privately owned businesses . The 3 newsagents were sold. Cooper provides no sale figures.
Sounds like a good enough read as biographies go.
I'd say the opposite! It's refreshing to see people show loyalty to a friend or colleague (former or current) and keep their mouths shut!!It's pretty sad to read a biography where none of the subject's childhood friends, schoolmates, college contemporaries and early business associates do not give any help in filling the picture.
I think it might say more about Matt Cooper than Michael O'Leary.It's pretty sad to read a biography where none of the subject's childhood friends, schoolmates, college contemporaries and early business associates do not give any help in filling the picture.
I dimly remember it said that he got an accountancy qualification before doing the newsagents thing in west Dublin.
A colleague (ACCA) mentioned recently that she had been at an ACCA lunchtime gig years ago with MO’L as speaker.
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