I live in Scotland. My wife's family lives in Ireland. We fly Edinburgh <-> Dublin several times a year. We fly with Aerlingus (Ireland's national airline), if we possibly can, because we hate flying Ryanair. Ryanair is a horrible experience. (Aerlingus aint that good either, but they're better and often cheaper than Ryanair).
But ... you really should listen to Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary get grilled on the BBC's Hardtalk programme. O'Leary is very clear and confident about his business model (they're CHEAP, that's the deal), he answers every single question in a way that sounds honest, plausible and extremely positive; he has balls. I wouldn't want to do business with him, I wouldn't want to work for him, I don't want to fly with him ... but I wish I could talk and think like him. He's no Ronald Regan, but he's no Ronald McDonald either.
If you are quick and live in the UK use the high-quality iplayer feed which expires on the 23rd of August, otherwise use the lower-quality link on this BBC page)
