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Tayto Madam President? That'll be €8.50 please.

Badgermonkey

On Monday last, March 21st, I boarded an Aer Lingus flight from Amsterdam Schipol to Dublin.

Having flown from LA overnight, I wearily settled into my window seat and dosed 'til I was awoken some time later by the familiar voice of former Uachtaran na hEireann Mary Robinson, now seated in my row, on the aisle with the centre seat unoccupied.

By this time, the haughtily titled 'Sky-cafe', an industrial apparatus for dispensing tea and almost food had rolled up.

I was only a little surprised she was asked to dip her hand in her purse for tea and crisps though I'm sure the stewardess could have exercised some discretion.

So question is - free lunch out of respect for a former holder of the office or pay up like the rest of us schlubs?

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chicken fingers

Free vodka for jordan and Mary Robinson (one of the best human beings Ireland has ever produced) has to pay for her taytos.
Shows the values we have as a society.

Paparazzo

My ma used to work in a bookshop in town. She said that "famous" (rte famous) people used to come in and they'd ask for a discount purely because they're famous.
A famous ex dublin gaa player wanted a discount in from a furniture shop my da worked in. He used the line "Do you know who I am?"

prinz

taytothief wrote: »

Pay for tayto?
LOL

Waiting nearly two years for this perfect opportunity, nice.

She should pay like anyone else ffs.. and yes I too have experience of people with a bit of celebrity status expecting to get stuff for free/at a discount. Pathetic.

Stinicker

Aer Lingus no longer has Business Class on short haul, so obviously she pays! we have Aer Lingus and Ryanair,

Aer Lingus:

Gives you more baggage allowance
Codeshares your baggage transferring it to certain airlines
Flys direct to normal airports
Is more expensive
Assigned seating, none of the scrum to get on the plane etc.
Uses Jetways (except in Cork where you will always get soaked wet!)

Ryanair:

Smaller baggage allowance, although more can be bought for a fee
No codeshares, just P2P flying
Will land you 70 miles away from your destination in a runaway and shed
Is equally expensive, (cheap deals occasionally can be got!)
Sit where you like, thus all the lemmings stand and queue as the plane pulls up at the stand for 25mins
Never uses Jetways ever, a wet day can mean a 2 or 3 hour flight after a soaking.
Is owned by a pretentious git called Michael O'Leary

Pompey Magnus

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

It's just good judgement to give a woman whose done so much for human rights a free cup of tea.

You do realise she didn't do that work for free? She was paid a massive salary and receives an enormous pension for her time as Senator and President, not forgetting her money from the UN and other bits and pieces on the side. She is handsomely rewarded for her work, so she can cough up like the rest of the plebs.

L'prof

€130k state pension and you expect her to dine for free on the back of her status???

Pay up and tip heavily!!!

enfant terrible

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

You do realise she didn't do that work for free? She was paid a massive salary and receives an enormous pension for her time as Senator and President, not forgetting her money from the UN and other bits and pieces on the side. She is handsomely rewarded for her work, so she can cough up like the rest of the plebs.

Ya she gets 2500 a week from the tax payers while also blaming the regular people of Ireland for the dept were in at the moment.

What a bitch.

Stinicker

L'prof wrote: »

€130k state pension and you expect her to dine for free on the back of her status???

Pay up and tip heavily!!!

I have never ever seen someone tip on a plane

Saermegil

I don't think there's a right/wrong attitude here, it's a nice gesture to offer her some complimentary crisps, but she obviously can pay for them, so she's fine either way.

Did anyone think that she might actually prefer to pay?

Joey the lips

You should have asked for a dip in her bags and when she offered said "Here's tp you mrs Robbinson jesus loves you more than you will know...wo wo wo"

Dont forget to tick no on the census day :rolleyes:

robinph

Paparazzo wrote: »

My ma used to work in a bookshop in town. She said that "famous" (rte famous) people used to come in and they'd ask for a discount purely because they're famous.
A famous ex dublin gaa player wanted a discount in from a furniture shop my da worked in. He used the line "Do you know who I am?"

Charge them double seeing as they can clearly afford it.

Eve_Dublin

enfant terrible wrote: »

Couldn't find much there, found this thread talking about her achievements
http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/36972-achievements-mary-robinson.html

Don't know why she's so popular, she was just another politician getting a crazy wage for not doing much.

You don't know anything about her clearly.

Badgermonkey

Joey the lips wrote: »

You should have asked for a dip in her bags and when she offered said "Here's tp you mrs Robbinson jesus loves you more than you will know...wo wo wo"

I think the fictional Mrs. Robinson was a tad more alluring.

Frankly I'd do Art Garfunkel before Mary, I could also store my Tayto in his weird hair.

enfant terrible

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

You don't know anything about her clearly.

There is not much to know.

Eve_Dublin

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

You do realise she didn't do that work for free? She was paid a massive salary and receives an enormous pension for her time as Senator and President, not forgetting her money from the UN and other bits and pieces on the side. She is handsomely rewarded for her work, so she can cough up like the rest of the plebs.

Ehhh of course I do like we all do for our jobs. So do teachers and doctors and Firemen/women...doesn't make what they do any less admirable and deserving of praise...and a free cup of tea and Tayto. Brain Cowan got away with doing feck all and received the same benefits she did....where's the justice in that? Ihad crap teachers in school who got paid the same amount as the wonderful, inspiring ones who'd give extra classes after school for free because they cared about what they did and it was more than a job for them. Mary is one of the good guys and in an area where you hear of so much corruption and dishonesty, it's refreshing.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely...but not in Mary's case and I salute her for that. Give the woman a free cup of tea ffs. I'm not saying she deserves a Prada handbag...just a cup of hot water with a teabag worth 2cent.

Hersheys

Weird, I was on a flight recently with Mary and she didn't pay for her tea.

Pompey Magnus

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

Absolute power corrupts absolutely...but not in Mary's case and I salute her for that. Give the woman a free cup of tea ffs. I'm not saying she deserves a Prada handbag...just a cup of hot water with a teabag worth 2cent.

Do you reckon someone who does voluntary work for the elderly in their neighbourhood also deserves a cup of hot water and teabag for free? As you mentioned them how about teachers, firemen and doctors? Maybe even people who earn an average industrial wage yet still have direct debits set up to give a certain amount to charity...would it be fair to deprive them of some hot water and a teabag? Maybe Aer Lingus should just give everybody free stuff?

Or is it just the rich people who do good that deserve the special treatment?

Badgermonkey

Hersheys wrote: »

Weird, I was on a flight recently with Mary and she didn't pay for her tea.

We need to get Joe Duffy on da liveline to investigate, eh, you make the call.

I'm assuming your flight was AL as opposed to a full service carrier.

mickdw

I think she should have been offered it free. I feel she would have paid anyway though. She is a very straight person and has gone on to do great work following the presidency. Think of all she is saving the state by living elsewhere much of the time and not availing of many of the ex president perks that are available.

CantGetNoSleep

For absolute power to corrupt absolute power has to be present

Since when did the president of Ireland have absolute power?

enfant terrible

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Do you reckon someone who does voluntary work for the elderly in their neighbourhood also deserves a cup of hot water and teabag for free? As you mentioned them how about teachers, firemen and doctors? Maybe even people who earn an average industrial wage yet still have direct debits set up to give a certain amount to charity...would it be fair to deprive them of some hot water and a teabag? Maybe Aer Lingus should just give everybody free stuff?

Or is it just the rich people who do good that deserve the special treatment?

Ya but just remember all the great things Mary did for Ireland she earned her 2500 a week.

Eve_Dublin

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Do you reckon someone who does voluntary work for the elderly in their neighbourhood also deserves a cup of hot water and teabag for free? As you mentioned them how about teachers, firemen and doctors? Maybe even people who earn an average industrial wage yet still have direct debits set up to give a certain amount to charity...would it be fair to deprive them of some hot water and a teabag? Maybe Aer Lingus should just give everybody free stuff?

Or is it just the rich people who do good that deserve the special treatment?

Did I say that??? Did I in anyway imply that because Mary is wealthy, she deserves a free cup of tea?? Why are you purposely mixing up my words? ANYONE who does good for society deserves at LEAST a cup of tea. I hope anyone doing voluntary work is getting cups of tea on their shift at LEAST (i'm hoping they're getting a sandiwch too).

AskMyChocolate

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

Mary Robinson, people....MARY ROBINSON!! Do you know anything about what this woman has done?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson

The least she deserves is a free packet of Tayto and a cup of tea.

Couldn't imagine Mary munching on a packet of Tayto though...kind of knocks her off the pedastal I've put her on...I wonder did she drop any down her top and had to fish them out of her bra like I do....

Stop fishing crisps out of her bra. You can't be that hungry and it's disrespectful.

Eve_Dublin

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

For absolute power to corrupt absolute power has to be present

Since when did the president of Ireland have absolute power?

No. Corruption was endemic in Fianna Fail on EVERY level. Brian Cowan was only the tip of the iceberg.

I'd say head of state is a fairly corruptable position if you wanted it to be.

Pompey Magnus

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

Did I say that??? Did I in anyway imply that because Mary is wealthy, she deserves a free cup of tea?? Why are you purposely mixing up my words? ANYONE who does good for society deserves at LEAST a cup of tea. I hope anyone doing voluntary work is getting cups of tea on their shift at LEAST (i'm hoping they're getting a sandiwch too).

So what you are saying is that it should be Aer Lingus' policy to provide free refreshments to everyone who does a bit of good, presumably that will be everyone on the flight if they don't want to alienate customers?

Well that is all well and good but at the end of the day it will just mean they raise the prices of flights to compensate and we are back at square one again, with the only winner likely to be the airline...or they could have the sensible policy that if someone wants to buy something, they should exchange money for it.

Mary no doubt doesn't pay for dinner when she attends as a guest speaker at some massive banquet to highlight famine in Africa or the like so its not like she is being deprived due to her work.

Eve_Dublin

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

So what you are saying is that it should be Aer Lingus' policy to provide free refreshments to everyone who does a bit of good, presumably that will be everyone on the flight if they don't want to alienate customers?

Well that is all well and good but at the end of the day it will just mean they raise the prices of flights to compensate and we are back at square one again, with the only winner likely to be the airline.

Nope. That's not what I said at all.

Eve_Dublin

I see the posters from Cavan are out in their droves today.

ejmaztec

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

No. Corruption was endemic in Fianna Fail on EVERY level. Brian Cowan was only the tip of the iceberg.

I'd say head of state is a fairly corruptable position if you wanted it to be.

The government jet with barely enough room for the passengers in amongst all the boxes full of free Taytos stacked to the roof.

Pompey Magnus

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

Nope. That's not what I said at all.

Oh, I must have misunderstood you when you said "ANYONE who does good for society deserves at LEAST a cup of tea" as I thought you meant that anyone who does good for society would deserve at least a cup of tea.

Eve_Dublin

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

Oh, I must have misunderstood you when you said "ANYONE who does good for society deserves at LEAST a cup of tea" as I thought you meant that anyone who does good for society would deserve at least a cup of tea.

How stupid (I am in AH though). I don't remember saying anyone who does good should get a free cup of tea on their flight with Aer Lingus...or did I? Maybe you could find that quote...

In my humble opinon, Mary Robinson has done exceptional work in her positions of power. The woman didn't demand a free cup of tea...but I think it'd be a nice gesture. Continue to put words in my mouth to suit your argument if ye like.