Ryanair is seeking applications for the role of financial assistant to Mr O’Leary, but if you’re a fan of Manchester United, Dublin GAA or Leinster Rugby, you need not apply.
The job may not be for everybody – the listing refers to the role as “dogsbody” to Mr O’Leary. A dogsbody is someone doing work, often boring or monotonous, that most others would not want to do.
Many listed requirements are as you would expect. The successful applicant should be a qualified accountant, have excellent communication and negotiation skills, and bring a “strong commercial acumen”.
The last requirement on the list reads: “No Dub, Man U or Leinster supporters. Munster/Man City fans preferred!!”
Though he was raised in Westmeath, Mr O’Leary was born in Kanturk in Cork and is a supporter of Munster Rugby. He attended Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school in Co Kildare with a strong rugby tradition.
His love for Manchester City goes back many years, but Mr O’Leary previously turned down an opportunity to become directly involved with his favourite club. In 2003, he was offered a chance to buy a stake in the club but decided to keep his support strictly to attending matches in Manchester a few times a year.
In July 2011, Mr O’Leary donned a City jersey at the grand opening of Ryanair’s new base in Manchester.
By Mr O’Leary’s own admission, he is not entirely sure why he began shouting for the blue side of Manchester in the late 1960s. To those who were not around for the glory days of Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee, it might seem an odd choice for an Irish football fan.
The club would go on an odyssey through the lower divisions in the decades to come, but when Mr O’Leary came on board in 1968, the Sky Blues were league champions.
“Like most City supporters, I don’t really know why I started supporting them,” he told the Manchester Evening News in 2013.
“I was about six or seven in 1968 and I think, like a lot of kids, you support the team that is successful at the time so I supported them. They were a great team in the 1960s and 70s but, unlike most other supporters, I stuck with them for the next 30 years.”
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Mr O’Leary’s allegiances were tested in 2011 when Ryanair was approached to take over as Manchester United’s front-of-shirt sponsor, but he opted to snub City’s biggest rivals.
The deal reportedly would have cost the airline €25m.
The sponsorship opportunity was described by Mr O’Leary as “too narrow”, saying it would have been too expensive for Ryanair compared to what it was worth.