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RYAN: A LEGACY

Ryan: A Legacy 1980s TAR Guinness Peat Aviation Image Name: Ryan: A Legacy 1980s TAR Guinness Peat Aviation
Ryan: A Legacy young TAR family photo October 1957 Image Name: Ryan: A Legacy young TAR family photo October 1957
Ryan: A Legacy  TAR photo by Liam Burke Image Name: Ryan: A Legacy TAR photo by Liam Burke
Ryan A Legacy Michael O'LearyIMG_0413 Image Name: Ryan A Legacy Michael O'LearyIMG_0413
Ryan A Legacy. The Ryan family (Tony holding dog) , taken in Thurles, Co Tipperary, c.1950 Image Name: Ryan A Legacy. The Ryan family (Tony holding dog) , taken in Thurles, Co Tipperary, c.1950
Ryan A Legacy IMG_0412 Image Name: Ryan A Legacy IMG_0412
Ryan A Legacy IMG_0408 Image Name: Ryan A Legacy IMG_0408
Ryan A Legacy. Tony's parents  Martin and Lily Ryan c.1935 at Keane’s Points, Limerick Junction, Co Tipperary Image Name: Ryan A Legacy. Tony's parents Martin and Lily Ryan c.1935 at Keane’s Points, Limerick Junction, Co Tipperary
Ryan A Legacy.  Martin and Tony Ryan (3 months old); taken in 1936 at Keane’s Points, Limerick Junction, Co Tipperary Image Name: Ryan A Legacy. Martin and Tony Ryan (3 months old); taken in 1936 at Keane’s Points, Limerick Junction, Co Tipperary

Three men, three families, three legacies from three different realms of Irish life: politics, business and sports.  Brian Lenihan: the inheritor of an Irish political dynasty, Fianna Fáil party stalwart and Minister for Finance during a time of unprecedented crisis—both economic and personal.  Tony Ryan: the visionary behind GPA and Ryanair as well as the instigator of the current global success in Irish aviation leasing—as well as a man who faced several financial showdowns during his long business career.  And Páidí Ó Sé, the Kerry football legend, whose broad legacy sharpens into focus as family and the wider GAA community come to terms with his recent tragic death at the age of fifty-seven.

Episode 2

Tony Ryan’s beginning wasn’t as privileged as his later years at the helm of an international business.  Tony was the son of a CIE employee who tragically died when his son was only 18.  Growing up in the railway hub of Limerick Junction, travel was an early lure for young Tony.  It was also a way to support his mother and younger siblings.  But the journey from ground staff worker in Aer Lingus to aviation mogul of a worldwide brand came as a surprise to many.  In the 1970s, and after 15 years with Ireland’s national carrier, what turned Tony Ryan into an entrepreneur who could position Shannon-based air leasing company, Guinness Peat Aviation, on the global stage?  Then, following GPA’s spectacular crash, how did Tony Ryan manage a second coming with fledgling airline Ryanair?  And how key was meeting his match in ambitious and controversial protégé, Michael O’Leary, to growing Ryanair into Europe’s largest budget airline?