Heir to the Ryanair empire is flying solo

Ryanair heiress Danielle Ryan tells Shilpa Ganatra about life in LA and her latest business venture: travel guides.

“I was travelling before I could remember, and I’ve never really stopped,” says Danielle Ryan, eldest granddaughter of Tony Ryan, Ryanair’s co-founder.

“It was a big part of my education in terms of the perspective it’s given me. It’s obviously in the blood, and it’s been around forever with me.”

From Dublin via Sri Lanka and Germany, Danielle Ryan’s wanderlust has now taken her to Los Angeles, where she and her family have taken up temporary residence since November.

Ostensibly there for her lifestyle brand Roads, the perennial sun helped swing the decision.

“I wanted to go for an elongated period of time, and have a Californian winter, which was fine by me,” says Ryan, 33.

“But actually they ended up having the biggest rainfall for the last 10 years. I couldn’t believe I left Ireland for that.”

In between meetings with distributors and retailers for Roads’ products — most notably perfumes, coffee-table books, and, from June, travel guides — Ryan, husband Richard Bourke (managing director of Roads), and their two children Carla and Ethan are enjoying LA life in the way that you can when you’ve months rather than days to explore the city.

“When you stay anywhere new for a few months, it’s a different experience,” she says.

“You have friends there, you get to know the things you like in the supermarket, and you get to know the city like a local.

“I like learning that way; absorbing the city and learning from it.

“Now it’s beautiful again, and I’m finding it a very interesting city, it seems the centre of the art world, for starters.

“There’s a new energy happening out there, it feels like there’s a lot of activity.

“LA feels like seven towns stuck together rather than one big city; Downtown is very different to West Hollywood which is very different to Venice Beach.

“I love Downtown, I feel it’s a really exciting movement, it’s a place that’s thriving very quickly with the coolest restaurants and cafes; it feels like everything is happening down there. I think it’s the one to watch.”

Even on a phone line, her excitement for LA is tangible, an admirable trait given that her €250m fortune could have afforded her the luxury of travelling back and forth to LA regularly.

All her life. Business class. Let’s not think about it too hard.

As it is, Ryan’s passionate and straight-talking in equal measures; you’d guess without knowing that she was a company-owning working mother.

Formerly, Ryan’s interest lay in acting; she trained at the revered Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before earning bit-parts in Fair City and The Tudors, after which she set up RADA’s Irish equivalent, the Lir Academy in 2011.

Continuing her life’s journey, the next year, she married Richard Bourke in a lavish wedding, reported to have cost €100,000.

The year after, Roads began.

So she’s a little hesitant when I ask if her LA stint might involve a return to acting, given it’s the beating heart of the film and TV industry.

“Friends that I trained with have suggested that,” she says. “I don’t know if there’s too much water under the bridge.

“I still stay very much of in contact with the acting world because of Lir, but I don’t think I’d be meeting with agents or anything like that in the immediate future. I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment. “

Indeed, the fourth year of Roads marks the maturing of Danielle’s business venture, and its ever- evolving shape is occupying her time.

“When we started, the fragrances hit the market very fast. We were in nearly a hundred stores very quickly, so I spent the first year-and-a-half playing catch-up. I spent a lot time travelling, perhaps too much. So I’ve learnt to ground myself and be more mobile by working from wherever I am — pulling back my life a little bit.

“In many ways it becomes easier, but it also becomes larger.

“I love my team, I trust them, they’re better than me, so I rely on their opinions a lot.”

Ryan’s Dublin-based company now employs four people.

Danielle Ryan: ‘Everyone’s going to have preconceived notions about everyone else. You just have to try and ignore it and let your work speak for itself. People are always going to have opinions.’

I ask if, as a businesswoman, she’s faced issues based on her gender.

“I think that certain industries are harder when they’re more male-dominated, but my industries have been less so.

“Most of my team are women — not by design but by accident.

“We’re curators and project managers dealing with people across the world, so as we become more digital, gender becomes less of an issue.

“You do feel it in real life, but it’s hard to put your finger on.

“You wonder if you didn’t get that opportunity to talk because you were a woman. You can’t be sure, but women are good at identifying what the issue is.

“In any case, I’ve learned to ignore it and push through — and that’s a philosophy I have not only in business, but also in life.”

Indeed, Ryan must face prejudice based on her background: The story of an heiress-turned-entrepreneur is likely to conjure up associations with Paris Hilton and Ivanka Trump, and no one wants that.

But as Ryan says, it’s something she’s learned to shrug off.

“Everyone’s going to have preconceived notions about everyone else.

“You just have to try and ignore it and let your work speak for itself.

“People are always going to have opinions.”

Forging on regardless, Ryan is expanding Roads this year with The Considered Guides, a curated set of travel guides.

The first release sees Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Marrakech under the spotlight, with contributions from Ryan and locals with exquisite taste; Dublin’s guide, for example, features recommendations from fashionista Sonya Lennon, Image editor Rosie McMeel, and Andrea Horan from Tropical Popical.

Ryan’s born-and-bred status means the Dublin guide was the obvious start.

The other cities involved research, phonecalls, and then finally a visit out sans family, for two weeks of note-taking and box-ticking.

“I loved going on my own,” she says, revealing her guilty pleasure.

“I had that time to think and work, and I move quicker on my own.

“Family holidays are completely different — they’re catered to the family, and have a lot of downtime.

“I wouldn’t see these trips as a holiday really, they were pretty full on.”

What made her pick these five cities? “I wanted to walk before I could run,” she says.

“The cities I’ve covered I know fairly well already, and had different things going on there.

“That’s why I didn’t go for the primary European cities straight out.

“I’ve just finished Miami and LA which are bigger cities — they’re going to be out next year, along with others.”

Before then, Ryan says that the family will prise themselves away from LA and head back to Dublin, with plans to return before the year is out.

“It’s been nice to see LA and everything’s always up in the air,” she says.

“But home is home.”

• The Considered Guides are published by Roads on June 8 at €12