A barman friend of mine tells the yarn about giving a customer his Christmas drink. The man took a sip of it, turned up his nose and complained it wasn’t a great pint.

It is a story he tells to cement the view that you only appreciate something when you have to pay for it. Get something for little or nothing and you don’t.

That seems to apply to the people complaining about Ryanair lately. A bit like our begrudgery of U2, giving out about Ryanair and its practices has become a bit of a national pastime.

I have flown with them maybe two- or three-hundred times. Only twice do I remember arriving somewhere late. With other well-known airlines, the crew are rude, my flights have been cancelled and I have had bags lost. Maybe I am just one of the lucky ones that can’t have a whine about Ryanair.

The latest national crib surrounds paying for seat reservations and – specifically – how couples or groups who decide not to reserve a seat are allocated random seats away from each other. And what a petty gripe it is. I always pay the extra few quid to reserve my seat, no matter which airline I fly with.

With Ryanair, I pay a small fee for priority boarding as it is always a great comfort to get on early if you have luggage on a busy flight. It is only a great comfort because so few others are willing to fork out the extra few euro for priority boarding. And the same thriftiness is the reason many won’t pay for a seat of their choice either, but then complain.

Even when I add everything up, I can still fly to Brussels and back for less than the round trip in the taxi to Dublin airport. I often fork out €60 for a taxi over and back and a total of less than €40 for the return flight with Ryanair if I book in time – and for multiples cheaper than other airlines.

And that is the key, booking in time, being organised. I find it hard to believe that a family on a budget planning a holiday abroad would not have their flights booked a long way out, thus saving on the cost and when they have a better chance of reserving cheap seats.

I accept that every penny counts with big families on a budget. But if you have a family that wish to sit together (remembering that its mandatory under 12s sit with an adult, so you must pay the extra to choose these seats together), like in the theatre or football stadium, if you want the better seats together, you pay more. It you want to stand randomly on the terrace, you pay less. Simple, really.

Oh, the pub customer got a fresh pint by the way, it being the season of goodwill. CL

Remembering Ronan in glorious sunshine

“I couldn’t lace his boots as a footballer, as a TV presenter, as a gentleman and as a family man.” They were my words to describe the late Ronan Clarke, the former Ear to the Ground presenter who died three years ago of cancer at the young age of 41.

Last Sunday, I was humbled to be asked to run in and present the medals at the third annual Ronan Clarke memorial 5k and 10k races organised by the Killala GAA club, where Ronan was a stalwart.

Hundreds of young and old joined the Clarke family for a truly wonderful occasion, culminating in music, tea and sandwiches, as well as the presentation in the local community hall. It was a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday honouring such a wonderful guy.