The image of mature and elegant Aer Lingus cabin crew reacting to the takeover by sniffily dismissing the substandard way they do business in Ryanair encapsulates the difference in approach between the two companies, even if Aer Lingus offers rather fewer extras these days than it likes to portray.

In this brave new Ireland, it is money that talks . . . not the old money of state subsidies, jobs for life and great perks and pensions . . .

but the new money of a wealthy, cash-rich upstart of an airline that's now got 76 more planes (and a further 281 on order) and over three times more routes than the state airline it wants to swallow up.

Once the price goes high enough, ideals go out the window and the greed creed takes root.

Which is why, unless the government, the Aer Lingus management or the employee shareholders group ESOT can pull a "white knight" rabbit from the hat, it is very probable that Michael O'Leary will succeed.

But O'Leary himself would want to be very sure of where he is going with this gamble, as fantastically and gloriously improbable as it may seem to the annual 42 million passengers who see the world thanks to his low-cost air travel.

This is not a short-haul flight that can be turned around in 25 minutes.

His move signals a major change to the hugely successful and exquisitely simple business model of piling as many passengers as quickly as possible onto an ever-expanding number of routes as the means of maximising profit for Ryanair.

Taking over Aer Lingus brings complexity and higher costs for Ryanair . . . and not all those costs are financial.

It also brings into the heart of his business all the malevolent ghosts of old Ireland which have haunted him as he swashbuckled his way to the top of the airline sector. What will Ryanair shareholders think of that?

Transport minister Martin Cullen has said the government is totally opposed to a Ryanair takeover on competition grounds.

But its options are limited. Most now believe that any challenge on these grounds to Europe, though it could be attempted, will ultimately fail.

In fact, the government's own stake in Aer Lingus goes against the ethos of open competition in Europe and any attempt to use golden shares to block takeovers of stateowned companies is unacceptable to Brussels.

As a government, though, it will be able to wield rather more power in the boardroom than any old minority shareholder, should Michael O'Leary's plans include unacceptable behaviour towards the Aer Lingus unions or disposal of routes that run contrary to the national interest.

He insists himself that he is taking the national interest into account and will run both airlines as separate entities, providing the sort of competition customers need.

But his track record has been to get what he wants without deference to either the great institutions of the state or to the individual.

And given his track record, there is no doubt that Aer Lingus staff and unions, Aer Rianta and Dublin Airport, all have a lot to fear from a newly empowered O'Leary.

With apologies to Yeats, the romantic Ireland of handsome Aer Lingus pilots and designer-clad hostesses providing charming but expensive services to travellers within a charmed world of high pay and great pensions is dead and gone. . . it's with O'Leary in the bearpit of the stockmarket.