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Sympathy for the Irish devil - ex-Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seanie Fitzpatrick

American writer comes face to face with notorious banker

CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

Irish Voice Reporter

Published Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 5:12 AM

Updated Monday, November 29, 2010, 1:37 PM

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Former Anglo Irish Bank Boss, Sean FitzPatrick

Coming face to face with the man held responsible for Ireland’s bust was not quite what American writer David Lynch expected.

Lynch’s new book When the Luck of the Irish Ran Out (Palgrave Macmillan) deals with the Irish implosion and Fitzpatrick figures prominently

Lynch is currently a senior writer with Bloomberg News in Washington, D.C., focusing on the intersection of politics and economics. Previously, he covered the global economy for USA TODAY, where he was the founding bureau chief in both London and Beijing. His work has taken him to more than 50 countries.

He actually felt himself feeling sorry for Seanie FitzPatrick, the Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank who now epitomizes the headlong flight into penury the country has experienced.

“I look at Sean Fitzpatrick as a tragic figure, one who’s almost Shakespearian,” says Lynch. “He came from modest origins in County Wicklow, his dad was a farmer who drank too much and got into debt.

“The first thing he did when he became CEO of this nothing bank, which Anglo Bank was in the 1980s, he builds it from nothing to a real financial power. Then to come full circle from all his riches and success to being held up as an emblem of Celtic Tiger excess is just a fascinating story.

“So far he has evaded an official reckoning, but my goodness, the price he’s paid. I understand the desire of Irish people to have their pound of flesh, but I think it’s impossible not to look at him and be impressed by his rise and fall.”

Lynch admits he has to fight his own tendency to feel empathy for Fitzpatrick’s plight -- now bankrupt, public enemy number one, the human face of the Celtic Tiger collapse.

Investigations are ongoing into the Irish golden circle and they may yet bring consequences to bear. But when Fitzpatrick’s loans became public knowledge in 2008 and the Mickey Mouse games he was playing by warehousing them at Irish Nationwide and then bringing them back on the books was reveled, he said something startling.

Fitzpatrick said he had been assured that these practices weren’t in violation of Irish law or banking regulations.

“I thought at the time that says more about Irish law than it does about Sean Fitzpatrick. If that’s true, that really is an indictment of the Irish regulator,” says Lynch. “Fitzpatrick’s story became emblematic of a broader social trend. He didn’t bring Ireland down.

“But I wouldn’t want to let him off the hook either. He’s not alone in his culpability and he is paying a price for his role.”

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Searlit | Nov 29, 2010, 02:32 PM EST

Whew Jacersagain, that's a lot of info, interesting, though.

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jacersagain | Nov 27, 2010, 08:47 PM EST

(... cont’d) The Labour Party used to be forcibly funded by working class people through Trade Unions during the ‘70s and ‘80s – though many of the working class wondered how their ex-leader of the Labour Party, Rory Quinn, laughingly referred to in Ireland as the “Millionaire Socialist” and his big business cousin Feargal Quinn, who founded the Superquinn supermarket chain throughout Ireland, paying the workers in the shops ridiculous wages whilst at the same time shouting in the Dail for better pay for the underpaid and who was first elected as a Senator in the Irish Parliament through a privileged minorities’ group of University people, and how also his other cousin, Lochlann Quinn, a former chairman of AIB Bank, were ever involved in the Labour Party’s Socialist ethics in the first place (still are, despite their Capitalist pursuits). Who would you believe in today? I’d believe in building industry people who are not speculators... the ordinary people who give ‘taca’ when we need it, especially food for the family and heating for the house. The people of my country need to destroy and re-build. Like honest builders do. Cue the music... #Sinn na Fianna Fail...#.

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jacersagain | Nov 27, 2010, 08:40 PM EST

(... cont’d) In contrast, Fine Gael is mainly funded by ex-British-compliant, rich-ed up farming families (e.g. like that of the Co. Meath millionaire Bruton farming family, including former FG leader and ex-Taoiseach John Bruton (currently working in an over-paid EU Commission comfy job that he doesn’t need and, seen within the EU’s ways of working, as being incapable of executing the job anyway but they can't get rid of him, 'cos of protocol stuff, and his brother Richard Bruton, representing an area of Dublin people who are not of his family’s farming origins, and currently vying to get rid of the FG's party’s present leader, Enda Kenny) and other rich businesses like that of the Barry family of Cork (“Barry’s Tea” - think about that next time you sup a cuppa, and the O’Dowd’s, like Fine Gael’s Fergus O’Dowd, brother of ICentral’s Niall O’Dowd. I won’t mention the others but you can research them all). As for supposed Taoiseach-in-waiting, Enda Kenny? He only got elected ‘cos his dad used to hold the seat before him; and his dad only got elected to the seat 'cos he was popular for winning a medal in a big football match in 1936. He has not a single qualification for representing Ireland as a leader anywhere, either in the Dail or on the world's political stages or facing out from the UN platform. He’s the perfect example of nepotism and cronyism at its best in Irish politics. (A wee prayer now - God! Spare my country from Enda Kenny on the world's stages before it's the enda' us! (Cont’d...)

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jacersagain | Nov 27, 2010, 07:52 PM EST

(...cont’d) The various, disparate associations of building industry people, mostly made up of ordinary working class people from humble backgrounds like Sean Fitzpatrick, were only too delighted to align themselves in unison with the industrial policies of Taoiseach Lemass, and became financial ‘supporters’ of Fianna Fail - hence ‘TACA’. (Although the TACA group of the mid-70s is long gone, the word ‘taca’ is used today by Irish charitable causes and should not be confused with the group of the 70s’ name). However, the companies of the TACA group, though no longer using the name as an Association, continue to exist and contribute to Fianna Fail’s political party funding collections; it explains why developers, as some construction companies are now called, are, like the Labour Party, closely entwined with Fianna Fail since the 1960’s and why the Construction Industry identifies itself with Fianna Fail, an industry which, as katieomprint says, was founded on being a party of the people – workers of industry and of the farmlands (see below re carpenters, kitchens, bed makers and food suppliers). (Cont’d...)

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jacersagain | Nov 27, 2010, 07:42 PM EST

(...cont’d)The main populated areas of Dublin, Cork, Sligo, Galway and Limerick benefitted. If you build homes, all industries grow and the workers and their families in them gain; if you build hotels for tourists, not only do you need food for them, you need carpets, beds and furniture for them (growing up in the 60’s, I hardly saw my dad as he and his colleagues worked 12-hrs a day, and half-weekends too, to satisfy the conglomerate Jury’s Hotels’ chain demands – can I sue them for that essential absence in my childhood?), but you also need housekeepers, waiters, bed and room maids and tourist agencies and their workers. In other words – a country’s economy was sprung to life through these Lemass policies. And it succeeded – back then and again during the Celtic Boom years. (Cont’d...)

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jacersagain | Nov 27, 2010, 07:36 PM EST

Katieomprint is right about Fianna Fail and the group called TACA except that it was never a secret society; it was widely printed about in the Press of the time. The word ‘Taca’ is the Irish word for ‘Support’ and the group, mainly comprised of owners of building companies and smaller building industry associations like bricklayers, plumbers and electricians and small farmers etc., allied themselves into a group back then known as TACA but never did so secretly. When former FF Taoiseach Sean Lemass began a policy in the 1960s to turn Ireland away from reliance on unproductive Agriculture and into the Industrial era, into the demolition of Ireland’s old decrepit homes - tenement buildings and old farmhouses - and into rebuilding of new homes and tower flat complexes, it became a cornerstone of the industrial age in Ireland. Add to that the fact that aircraft were taking people on holidays into Ireland in the ‘60s - Aer Lingus was in the skies, bringing Irish American tourists and other tourists. This made for very common sense – if you build lots and lots of new homes and hotels, there will be work for bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, joiners, painters, wall-paperers, rain gutter installers, drain-layers and glaziers; there would also be knock-on effects for retailers: furniture would be needed for the new homes and hotels – kitchen, sitting room, bathroom, bedroom suites, and TVs after the formation of the 1st Irish television station in 1961 and all the other stuff. (Cont’d...)

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Searlit | Nov 27, 2010, 12:23 PM EST

Nice posts Boo1113 and Ernesider.

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SENORRYAN | Nov 26, 2010, 07:24 AM EST

Generations of Irish people have blamed Britain for it's problems, instead of Cromwell, the new hate figures are all deservedly Irish, Neary (no academic qualifications) the financial regulator, Fingelton, Sean Fitz, Drummer ,Eugene Sheehy ETC.

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kateomprint | Nov 25, 2010, 04:51 PM EST

Ok. Like everything you have to go back to the beginning. When Fianna Fail was founded way back in the 30's, it really was about the party of the people. Fast forward to the late fifties, early 60's a scandal broke about a 'secret' society made up of Fianna Fail T.D's and big business, mainly developers. As far as I can recall it was called 'TACA'. I'm not sure what the initials meant but Im sure we can find out. Fianna Fail became the 'builders party' If Fianna Fail were in power, the builders were happy. This was a well known and accepted fact. From time to time the bubble would burst, Fine Gael and Labour would get into power, cut everything, cut our the waste and in the process piss everybody off! Next election Fianna Fail would promise good times for everybody and go back into power stronger than ever! Fast forward to the 90's when the economy started to take off. Fianna Fail in power set up structures that would once and for all make themselves and their cronies, the developers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. And it almost worked. Almost. Sean Fitz. is in fact a decent man, but just a small pawn, nothing else. He was used and abused by the guys at the top of Irish business life who will never be made accountable. These are the real untouchables. Seanie will probably do jail, the public need a head and his will do just fine. By the way do people realise that the 'Regulator' the guy whose job was to regulate the banks, failed utterly in his job and was rewarded with a large lump sum and pension. Welcome to Ireland. The land of Saints and Scholars!

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PolinDeB | Nov 24, 2010, 08:24 PM EST

But he's right, if we can dump the debt loaded on us by him then we can thrive again, hopefully a little wiser than before.

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PolinDeB | Nov 24, 2010, 08:23 PM EST

In fairness, legally all right does not mean morally or responsibly right. Loaning to developers for 10 years to build 90,000 house a year when only 40,000 were needed.. Seeing him as a person you can feel compassion but as an Irish person you call 'Traitor'....The laws are not there to bind us but to guide us, the law of our people is older and stronger, it demands loyalty to our country. As my mother would say, just cause it's not forbidden doesn't mean it's right. And there are millions of innocent Irish people suffering for his sins...

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homefarm | Nov 24, 2010, 06:12 PM EST

I believe a purge is a good thing, like burning the forest to promote regrowth, Seanie would be in the first batch for burning. Ireland is a democracy and will have to bear the consequences of poor choices, I keep on thinking of Raiders Of The Lost Ark where a poor choice was fatal. What is disturbing is the sight of Lowry and Healy Rae distancing themselves from FF, those 2 scumbags were even too crooked for FF, the people of Ireland need to make wise choices to ensure that the powers that be represent the best interests of all not just the insiders.

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Temerity | Nov 24, 2010, 04:15 PM EST

I entirely agree with Lynch the Irish have too much going for them they will rise above this.However they must hold onto the faith of their forebears for I beleive it was that which fed their spirits through all the adversities of the past.I would say FitzPatrick had very little of it himself.

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boo1113 | Nov 24, 2010, 12:45 PM EST

You have learned well from your American Cousins. The free trade capitalist approach that promotes Greed and Power. Laws apply ony to the unwashed masses...or as we like to politely call them...the General Public. And the topping on the Capitalist Cake...DE-REGULATE. We can police ourselves.

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Ernesider | Nov 24, 2010, 11:09 AM EST

... he must go to jail and with him Cowen and well we can spur the economy with the need now to build prisons in every county. Getting more and more like America. Sad state of affairs. I always wondered as a young lad and still as an older man why don't we study James Connolly and put his beliefs into practice. We are too good a people to be lead by fianna fail or fianna gael. In mourning here. Where's me black flag?

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