The famously outspoken boss of the European budget airline Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has apologised for a joke about "making love" to the Queen of England at a high-level gathering of British politicians.
Mr O'Leary's opening remarks to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly went down like a lead balloon, as you can see from this video clip (watch from 1:00, or wait a little while and we'll have an edited version up on the Royalist).
Mr O'Leary opened his speech by saying: "Addressing such an august body as this reminds me much of making love to the queen of England – you know it is a great honor, you're just not sure how much pleasure it is going to be."
ADVERTISEMENT
Cue total silence.
British Conservative politician Andrew Rosindell MP described the remarks as "inappropriate" and asked the businessman to consider withdrawing the comments.
Mr O'Leary subsequently did so.
"I happily apologise for my opening remarks. It is always hard to judge the room. It normally is a joke that works quite well and I thought it might work well here," said Mr O'Leary at the conference, held at the Royal Hospital in Dublin."I didn't mean to convey any discourtesy and I apologise if I did."
