McManus might have been referring to any of the 59% of Irish people . . . 67% of ABC1s . . who revere O'Leary as the nation's business role model, according to a poll the Sunday Tribune published just after O'Leary launched his audacious bid. But one can't help but think he might have had Alan Ruddock in mind.

Ruddock has been covering O'Leary since he was assigned to report on the collapse of Tony Ryan's aircraft leasing company, GPA, in the early 1990s, one of his first big stories after serving as this newspaper's business editor nearly 20 years ago. If there was any doubt about where Ruddock stands on Michael O'Leary, after a decade of features and columns in the Sunday Times and Sunday Independent, it has been removed entirely by Ruddock's first book, Michael O'Leary . . . A Life in Full Flight.

Love Story It is said a biographer should love his subject, but not too much. Ruddock's admiration for O'Leary . . . or more accurately, his achievements . . .stays the right side of the line, though it's a close-run thing on some of the 424 pages.

The book is really more a love story than a biography.

The twin narratives of the man and the airline run in parallel until late 1991: a brash pup eager to make money and an airline tapping a whole new market for air travel.

O'Leary plays hard to get, resisting Tony Ryan's attempts to get him to accept a formal role at Ryanair until they strike a deal that will see O'Leary pocket 25% of all the profits above �2m.

Around the same time, O'Leary was dispatched to the US to meet Herb Kelleher, the flamboyant, hard-drinking, chain-smoking airline impresario behind Southwest, the original low-fares airline, who would serve as Ryanair's new inspiration.

The combination of Ryan's original capital, Kelleher's experiences and O'Leary's ruthless application of both was the engine that powered the airline. That story is itself still under-appreciated in Ireland, Ruddock told me recently, which was part of the reason he wanted to write the book.

"People here don't realise how big Ryanair is in European or global terms, " he said.

"When people talk about Aer Lingus and Ryanair, they think we're talking about two similar-sized businesses. [In fact, Ryanair carries five times the number of passengers of the former national airline that once tried to buy Ryanair. ] The sheer scale of what they've done doesn't get through to people."

Private Life Ruddock made a conscious decision to shy away from probing his subject's family.

O'Leary's life before graduating from Trinity College, Dublin gets just 15 pages. This seems a shame, because even if it is mere pop-psychology, some clues about how private experiences and relationships shaped one of the most remarkable personalities on the world business stage would surely find an eager audience.

We do get some insights that contradict what others have said about O'Leary and what he's said about himself.

He denies he was friends with Declan Ryan, Tony Ryan's son, at Clongowes . . . a relationship that others suggest led to Ryan "discovering" O'Leary at an early age. And O'Leary's insistence that he grew up on a farm is gently juxtaposed with stories of his father's business ventures.

Ruddock doesn't take the tantalising hints any further, in part because he believes that with O'Leary, what you see is what you get. Also, his rambunctious rebel style still retains a capacity to shock.

"We're used to the idea of a corporate world that schmoozes, that there really is some sort of clique that exists, " Ruddock explains.

"Not so long ago we talked about the Golden Circle, but there was a sense of schmooze, of closeness. And here's a guy who's in their face, almost un-Irish. Those sorts of things fascinate me far more than what sort of deodorant he wears . . . this Kitty Kelly approach route.

Who he had his first snog with when he was 17.

"Because he does personify or epitomise what's happened here . . . the whole Celtic Tiger thing. Here's a guy who's taken something Irish and turned it into a world success. And is not recognised for doing that. Set against that all the personal things I find fascinating. He doesn't do the Denis O'Brien.

He doesn't instantly run to Portugal to try to hide his money from the taxman. He noisily stays put here and pays his taxes and turns his annual tax payment into a publicity stunt. I think that resonates with people."

The Future So does Ruddock think that McManus is right, that the "doomed" Aer Lingus "frolic" will end in tears for O'Leary's management tenure, the result of a CEO who believes his own press?

"I don't think [O'Leary] loses on it. He can do the Magnier and McManus on Aer Lingus for as long as he likes . . . he can send them 37 questions a day if he wants and tie them up and all the time beat the hell out of them on prices out of Dublin."

"He can eventually flog the stake in Aer Lingus, I'd guess at a profit, to a BA, Air France or whoever else is deemed a suitable buyer. And I don't think it's preposterous to suggest that in 10 years time, if Aer Lingus works and survives and prospers, it does it as a niche transatlantic carrier without a short-haul presence at all, never mind a short-haul and long-haul carrier.

"With Ryanair, he could have made the short-haul more efficient, more profitable. He could have made money out of it. If he doesn't, well, all the while he's had Aer Lingus management running around thinking about him rather than thinking about the business. Not a bad thing."

Ruddock is also not convinced that O'Leary will step down in the next couple of years, as he'd hinted. O'Leary will only leave Ryanair when he gets bored, Ruddock predicts.