When I was in school there were fellas whose Mammies stood behind them with a mallet when they were filling in their CAO forms to make sure they ticked law, accountancy or medicine. The holy of holies of this type of Irish mammy was to have her son in the professions. This was what she had strived for all these years and it would be made concrete by the son’s entry into university and from then on the conveyor belt towards professional respectability.
Most to these lads were decent enough characters and went on to become partners in law firms, doctors or senior managers in the banks and department bosses in the big accountancy firms. They were never risk takers or particularly adventurous. They knew that the system rewarded obedience and conformity. And come to think of it now, they were quite capable of grassing up a messer in class or telling on lads smoking in the jacks. Put simply they were not to sort of lads you wanted beside you if you got into a scrap. They’d run a mile, worse still they’d switch sides if they had to.
Today these type of fellas form a central phalanx of Dublin’s professional class. There have become the “insiders” in Ireland. They have grinded away, kissing ass when necessary and are now rewarded for their good behavior by an equity partnership and a board directorship or three. They are now deep inside the system and realize that their job and their prosperity is based on preserving the status quo.
In the cacophony of moral outrage surrounding Sean Fitzpatrick, these lads are most voluminous because they realize that Seanie constitutes a threat to the status quo. He needs to go down, in order to protect them. The system needs a few scalps in order to spin the line that “we have drawn a line in the sand”. The insiders understand that the Seanie arrest is a damage limitation exercise for the “insiders” which allows them to heap approbrium on one – or maybe a handful of individuals – in order to allow them, the professionals insiders to carry on as if nothing had happened.
Amongst the leading lights of Ireland’s professional class there is a monumental struggle going on for personal and institutional survival. They are trying to pretend that Sean Fitzpatrick acted alone and that he and he alone was responsible for the financial madness of the past ten years.
I am not going to defend Sean Fitzpatrick here but I am going to make the fundamental point that he did not act alone. If we want to learn from this disaster, we need to acknowledge that the system is rotten, not just the generals. Seanie sat atop of a deeply corrupted system which was aided and abetted by insiders —politicians, estate agents, corporate lawyers, accountants and mush of the media – who extracted fees, votes and profits by making the property scam legitimate with the legal opinions, their qwack economics, their glossy brochures and their “oh so clean” set of accounts.
The insiders have made Seanie their moral skip, into which they can throw all the grubby deals that went wrong, all the bad advice they doled out and all the greed that saw them cross the is and dot the ts of yet another syndicated property consortium. Yes they were all involved in the great property scam, wining and dining, taking fees and lording it over others, but you wouldn’t think that now. Now they are distancing themselves from anything to do with Anglo as if the past never existed.
By the time they have rewritten history, Seanie Fitz will have acted alone. There will be no evidence of the dozens of lawyers, other bankers, and accountants who creamed off the top. Not to mention the estate agents and other spoofers who valued the market to validate the bank and property deals which the lawyers and accountants market now as billable services. The aim of the rewriting of history is to make sure that guilt is local not general, that there were a few bad eggs rather than a corrupted system and most crucially, at the end of this the same insiders should remain in positions of power.
To achieve this objective Ireland’s professional classes have constructed what could be called a large “Indignometre” that is chiming away in their heads. The Indignometre measures the level of outrage at Seanie Fitzpatrick and these last few days it has been ratcheted up to full tilt.
I met one of these insiders the other day. He’s a successful lawyer around town and the height of respectability. Sort of bloke who hasn’t put a foot wrong ever since his mammy applied spit to her hanky to wipe of the chocolate stains off his face.
I haven’t seen him for a few years. The last time I met him was in 2006 in the O’Reilly Hall in UCD. I was presenting a business awards ceremony – a sort of Rose of Tralee for men with BMWs and moderate handicaps. Seanie Fitzpatrick was there too – at the top of his game. Back then Seanie was everyone’s friend. There was a queue of admirers coming to kiss the ring of the man who had changed Irish banking. In the world of Irish finance, Seanie was the man. He was Mister Big. He had led the charge and they had followed him. This lawyer was waiting obligingly at the end of the Seanie queue, grovelling for an audience.
Four years ago the sycophants lined up. So called financial journalists who have subsequently dammed Seanie were there paying homage as well as other competing bankers hoping to be noticed, lawyers and accountants hoping for fees, captains of industry and builders, of course the builders, many of whom were made by Seanie.
A few years ago, this lad whose Mammy had pushed him up the greasy respectability pole was all “Seanie this” and “Seanie that”. Back then he was giddy telling me how he and Seanie and the lads were out playing a few holes, putting deals together. Now he is claiming that Seanie acted alone.
So we are to believe now that not only did Seanie run the bank on his own, but he pedaled the shares too, he signed off on the accounts and did the legals on the repacked property deals. Not only that but he wrote the puff pieces in the newspapers and as for the board members of Anglo, sure obviously Seanie didn’t listen to them — they are not to blame either. In fact no one is to blame but Seanie. History is being re-written.
In the great drama that is playing out in the Irish professional classes Seanie Fitz occupies the position of arch villan and there is a desperate struggle now on the part of those who were his best friends not so long ago Sean to distance themselves from him.
Remember these were the same fellas in school who might change sides if you got into a scrap at the bus stop.
The fact that they are trying to rewrite history is not that surprising what is galling however is that these guys who contributed to the mess and profited from it are now being given jobs in NAMA to make sure we pay for their greed. Ernst and Young, Anglo’s auditors have a job with NAMA, along with PWC who claimed Anglo’s losses would be €3bn rather than the Euro 14 billion it is likely to be. The estate agents who valued the market and created the hysteria are now advising NAMA on valuations and guess what, my lawyer mate who was hobnobbing Anglo three years ago is advising who now? You guessed it, yes he is now being paid by NAMA!
Maybe his Mammy was right all along.
[…] Celtic Tiger, we have silence (though an awful lot of finger-pointing) with dealing with the Bust. David McWilliams yesterday examined the curious case of Sean Fitzpatrick, a man who transformed a sleepy unexciting financial […]
As much as Sean Fitzpatrick and others are deserving of criticism for their part in the present chaos, I can’t help worrying that we are villifying to the state of pariahhood people who achieved spectacular successes as well as failures. Whilst ensuring the law is upheld and crimes are pursued, I can’t help thinking people like Sean Fitzpatrick still have a lot to offer the State and people constantly calling for his head on a pole will deter the use of these people’s considerable experience and past successes.
David, Most of the people to whom you refer would congratulate the Finance Minister on doing a very good job, given today’s difficult circumstances. He is perceived as serving their narrow sectional interests very well. The Minister is afraid of taking difficult decisions. His budget was designed to serve class interests and to foster the perceived public-private sectors’ divide. Brian Lenihan comes from a very privileged background and lacks the backbone and moral courage to act with impartiality. To date, he has been taking easy, pain-free decisions which are in the best interests of the elite; namely, continuing the FF… Read more »
David,
Fully agree with your latest edict.
Slightly concerned however that you went to press without spell checking or proof reading.
17 errors.
Ah sure we are all human afterall! (as Seanie’s Mammy might say)
Incident,
Forgive the spelling errors as this copy was not the one used in the SBPost yesterday as its website is down today. This is unproofed copy. I will put up the published one when their site is fixed.
Best David
You have once again hit the nail dead on the head David. Only last week I was in the company of people as you describe, who were defending their position in a very subtle way. These people are firmly a part of the set of people who were in charge throughout the period of mismanagement and now need to basically tough it out, because they unbelievably even to themselves, they still are in charge. What is becoming distressingly apparent is they are going to get away with it. There are so many of them and they aren’t suffering too much… Read more »
David : “When I was in school there were fellas whose Mammies stood behind them with a mallet when they were filling in their CAO forms to make sure they ticked law, accountancy or medicine. The holy of holies of this type of Irish mammy was to have her son in the professions.” Brilliant hook for the article, David, but don’t lose your nerve. Of course you meant to say: “The holy of holies of this type of Irish mammy was to have her son in the priesthood.” Irish mammies have a lot to answer for. Their intentions were honourable,… Read more »
David, do you have any idea how unpleasant it is when you read something and all of the sudden you start laughing really hard, just in the very moment when you had that second mouthful of coffee this morning. Sub consequently the coffee which now runs down the wrong tube, changing the laughter into a painful cough and well, if your primal body functions are still intact you spit it out in a rather ungracious way to protect yourself from drowning in a mouthful of coffee. If you are lucky that happens when you stand outside with the Lads having… Read more »
I was looking the names on the letter written by the so called whistleblower at Lehman brothers.
The letter was written to a Kelly, a Reilly, a Callan and an O´Meara.
WSJ Link is here http://bit.ly/bqDpwq
Their was to play the man not the ball . So they “ousted” him.
In Ireland, this would probably have worked.
Thank whoever, but my parents never put me under any pressure to enter the ‘professions’, so fortunately I got into university (major disappointment) and was delighted to do Arts, despite the gibes from those doing Commerce and Law (they always had a sinister air about them, which is why I think William Golding’s book ‘Lord of the Flies’ such an important contribution to literature). I was discussing this very theme on Saturday with a friend, who is an accountant and who courageously started his own business and is a decent guy. He said the same people who didn’t take any… Read more »
David – you have hit a lot on the head here – it is a summing up of Irish Society (dont exclude our brethen in the Cloth as well). When the British left Ireland in the 20th Century (and took with it – its social hierarchies and etiquettes) – it created a vacuum into the people which you write about were sucked. 25 years ago Bank of Ireland was run by Anglo-Irish – and it was bank with honour. Its all professions – I hold most medical consultants in the same manner as Seanie FitzPatrick. Seanie lost me a considerable… Read more »
That is really a great article . I remember years ago my Aunt won some sort of dinner in some South Dublin Hotel . I went with her and as we passed the bar she stopped and as she gazed at the red faced overwieight suits in the bar , she said in hushed tones ” They are the elite ” I thought that she was actually going to genuflect . I don’t know if its as bad now but do you remember how Consultants used to swan around hospitals like Gods with a whole team of junior doctors with… Read more »
This article will upset my ‘Insider’ uncle. But, that is ok, he is an extremely arrogant and obnoxious person. He was arrogant even back in the 80’s, and boom just made him ten times more unbearable.
David, surely you are not suggesting there will actually be any consequences for Seanie following his arrest. Were the events of last week not merely a theatrical event played out on front of the nation to create the illusion of accountability & retribution. Seanie played his roll well, and didn’t even miss out on his beauty sleep. Perhaps you should consider him as male lead in your upcoming premiere of Outsiders? ; – )
Court & Council – Should legal action be taken by the authorities against SF then it is the prerogative of the Judge to decide the outcome and not this forum .Ideas are inviting and opinions are interesting however a kangaroo court cannot happen on this forum otherwise justice will fail us .For those reasons this article has severe limitation to ayone who wants to respond with a free spirit.
I heard a story very recently about Seanie’s Golf Club lowering their fees to attract more members. Apparently SF stood up and expressed his concern that lowering the fees may attract ‘Riff-Raff’.
Folks, Suspicious land valuation for NAMA:
http://www.politics.ie/2539273-post1.html
David, the problem is that while all will tut tut and pontificate nobody will do anything for fear of it hitting them on the rebound. The system here is to blame the and not take responsibility. It is worst with the politicians and the club as they cannot seem to take responsibility for anything. It would not look good so they blame the civil servants the global economic crisis and anything they can but it was the club that caused the crisis here and anyone with any sense could see it. It will never be fixed or corrected until they… Read more »
How have the inept John Begg and Dan McLaughlin retained their cushy numbers?.Fingers took a £1 mill bonus and headed for Monaco and left £9 bill to go into NAMA.Why have banks not fired their lending managers?.
Folks, Eonomically damaging & fiscally irrelevant: Burke and Taft examine the figures and ask – do cuts = savings?
http://short.ie/0khnuo
All above articles are very interesting and disturbing but actions speak louder than words. What can be done so that the next generation of “outsiders” don’t end up paying for the mess? I have heard enough but I feel we need to do something about it as quickly as possible? Would you Mr Mc Williams be willing to organize something to galvanize public opposition to this corrupt system which favours the “insiders”?
Gerald Celente 18 March 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEjhz8cTNUw&feature=player_embedded
Hi David, David> Forgive the spelling errors Okay, mush and much are interchangeable as I guess its true that all that much money is now mush! I fully agree with your general axiom that there was more than Sean Fitzpatrick in this mess. Indeed, there are plenty that were non-Anglo-related involved, and there were a lot of people “on the make” as you point out. It was a gravy train, as easy as shooting fish in the barrel. Btw, shouldnt the regulator and Minister for Finance (Brian Cowen) be arrested first before Sean, as they missed it the shenanigans???? Well,… Read more »
David. Yes, seanie maybe made to walk the ‘plank’ the door of the castle then slammed firmly behind him. Absolutely very important to highlight seanie been thrown to the wolves by the inner circle. Quite amazing though if it is the case Seanie is been thrown to the lions how far down the totem pole he is in the inner sanctum. Amazing to think Seanie can be hung out to dry by an ‘insider elite’ and they are not threatened by the possibility of him singing like a canary on the other side of his defenestration. On the calibre and… Read more »
David – excellent article. Nothing against those parents who want their kids to do well. But in Ireland, under the steady infleunce a narrow enough set of cultural mores, which narrows to the width of a human hair in the leafy suburbs, careers are almost always seen as relating to membership of some clique. And the pressure on males is much heavier on females. (The pressure on females is to ‘catch’ the said male stereotypes – so much for the phrase ‘you can marry money, but it will never marry you back’). My real beef is that these professionals seem… Read more »
I want to know where I can apply to be an insider. My Mammy has a lot to answer for. For just a sniff of those millions I am sure many of us might be tempted to back stab and flip sides just for the taste of it. She probably was not aware of the mallet methodology God rest her. Guys, the people to blame for this are those who signed up for the mortages, left their grey matter at home and maintained their belief in the fantasy land of making a quick buck . All Seanie and the rest… Read more »
That’s it put ALL the blame on our Mothers ! this is why ‘we are where we are’ ….. we are Afraid to upset them !. Seanie won’t go to jail and if FF have their way they will just set up another Tribunal . can’t contribute another word here as I went out golfing today and got battered by strong winds and gale wind, so shattered here. !! ( and I didn’t even manage to do any deals while there) . Ireland won’t change until as I have said before We Wake up and sober up , there will… Read more »
Blair Horan (CPSU fat cat) has been claiming that the real problem with the Passport Office in Dublin, is that there was a flood last week, and the photocopier has not been dried out.
But it rained last night for the first time in almost a month. Where did the water come from ? A burst pipe maybe ? I just find Blair Horan as non-credible. He got involved in the Lisbon Referendum, and it was purely on the basis of ensuring that the state kept borrowing millions every week.
Here is an interesting statistic. At the height of the boom, there were regular secondary schools in South Dublin that were unable to fill their classrooms, because all the kids were shoved into boarding schools.
David, That Irish Mammy hasn’t gone away you know. Exhibit A; Orna Mulcahy of the Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0115/1224262378373.html “However, dedicated Leaving Certificate parents will be taking no chances and even now will be booking extra grinds and Easter cramming classes. There is too much at stake for this year’s students and for the year or two following them. They need to reach third level and stay there for a few years until the country is in a position to offer them jobs.” Its quite funny really, it has always amazed me, that people who decided to bring children into the… Read more »
David, you are my hero. You dislike the weak, pencil-neck chickenshits of the world as much as I do. Your writing in Follow the Money about Mark Little and Miriam O’Callaghan being a confectionary delight for television and the Lenihan episode were largely misunderstood. You had the beers with Seanie Fitz on the night described and you connected with him on a personal level that night. You too have the ability to put people under a spell. You are a bit of a Seanachai as my Irish speaking wife would say. In your case, and I have seen you speak… Read more »
@ Wills, from The Economist: -Book reviews: The prophets of the financial crisis, pity no-one listened to them http://ow.ly/1puyk More on Michael Lewis. Interesting comment left re Amway, banned in UK apparently in 2008. Some might recall (IIRC) David discussing various pyramid scams (sorry, “schemes” just my country pronunciation bise) doing the rounds circa 2006 was it? The strange thing is it was often the same boyos who were auctioneering and selling mortgages that were either involved and pitching or else just running this scams, sorry schemes, past me in the pub of a Saturday night. The same lads who… Read more »
And still more Irish scammers, fuelling the great JOD giveaway. Has anyone noticed that the national Lottery have pulled the stats from their website? Hmmmm. Luckily, these boys are on the ball to keep us on the inside track: – http://www.lottoresults.ie/analysis Now before some smart alec says that lotteries are a tax on the poor, don’t be ridiculous, that’s what NAMA is for. The lottery’s a bit of craic, even the venerable Chinese recognise the utility of that ticket purchase. A harmless bit of aul craic. But I DO find it very interesting to note that whereas in the land… Read more »
David used to be an economist but now he has turned to culture as has this board.
Where is the anger about our economic situation, our national debt, our structural deficit , our 436,000 unemployed, our ailing stock market , our falling house prices, our personal debts?
I think David learned alot from Farmleigh … there is money in culture.
Deco.
The professional career ethic stifling the country is the culture of the ‘insiders’ rigging and running the ‘free market system’ in their favor so as they can avoid real work be laizy and gorge on all the earthly delights on offer.
When I came to Ireland in the early 90’s, contraception was the main issue. I was too embarrassed to tell any of my friends and family that the Irish are discussing contraception. Then the cases as documented in the “Magdaline sisters”. Then the property boom came, more embarrassment. People are being scammed in buying poorly designed houses and/or apartments for ludicrous money. Then the economic crisis came, the church, Nama. Now, I am watching FrontLine and a discussion on Foxhunting and other bloodsports. When will this embarrass embarrassment ever stop.
Folks, for those complaining about DMcW’s approach to matters at the moment, I say this:
“There’s more than one way to skin a cat”.
From earlier, paulmcd said: “This is the kind of misleading nonsense you get from Government representatives all the time. High earners in Ireland are so vastly overpaid that even with their tax breaks and avoidance schemes which ordinary PAYE people do not have the means to avail of they may in fact pay a proportion of tax which is large relative to their numbers in society but on average they pay a lower proportion of their gross earnings in tax.” Funny you should mention misleading nonsense while dishing it out in abundance. Most high earners do not have “tax breaks… Read more »
The thing about TAX is that there is a lot of misinformation around. For example, some stats provided and regurgitated around dont include PRSI, which is clearly an income tax. Others dont include Employers PRSI, which is clearly an income tax when looked at grossly as an employer (who is honest and doesnt go bust!) has to pay it! Also, VAT as a tax is high (21%) and applied to all income earning bands regardless of their level of income. It is also applied on basic goods and servics, not on ‘luxuries’. And there are many other flat taxes, and… Read more »
Tax Seminar – Today was my first professional seminar I attended this year .It was very clear in real time everything we knew things to be have changed a lot .Those there were feeling the change and wondered what it was all becomming . I noticed the predominance of some words I never seem to appear before during these seminars such as : ‘ability to pay’ by the tax payer NAMA&80% tax liability New Codes New Mandatory requirements Severity of Implimentation Essentially I personally sensed a serious depletion of trust from revenue in their forthcoming work practices – maybe I… Read more »
@Deco @4, Lots of our inventiveness/creativity I’d say came from our Anglo Irish legacy especially kept alive by TCD and UCD. Growing isolationism in the 40’s and 50’s led to a smothering of creativity that came from this legacy. Croneyism of church and state that made so many many flee our shores contributed. Our culture was turned upside down by a ‘risk averse’ croneyism regarding ‘being smart’ as a possibly dangerous handicap meaning automatic exclusion from a circle of corrupt insiders who had it all sown up. Nowhere is this more illustrated than in the recent Hangar 6 debacle. In… Read more »
David, yes, yes indeed, little has changed, the delusion continues. This is an important article, (though I do wonder sometimes at the personal characterisations you use, a lot of people for some reason find them offensive!)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0323/1224266876401.html
FitzPatrick urged Anglo directors to buy shares, says ex-CEO
The first of the “Seanie made me do it defences”.
[…] Fitzpatrick didn't act alone | David McWilliams […]
@Gary 42 From your url: “Anglo will report losses of close to €12 billion later this month for the 15 months to the end of 2009, as it writes off about €14 billion on loans, including losses on loans of €36 billion moving to the National Asset Management Agency. As a result, the bank will require a further bailout from the Government, possibly as much as €6 billion, to replenish capital reserves. The Government injected a total of €4 billion into Anglo in three tranches last year — €3 billion in June, €828 million in August and €172 million in… Read more »
cbweb –
National Crime Forum
http://193.1.242.6/uhtbin/cgisirsi/Oi2BNGhgts/SIRSI/284790005/9
cbweb –
national crime forum report 1998 printed by the institute of public administration
check their web site
http://www.ipa.ie
White Collar Crime – ( quotations from above report 1998 ) White collar crime has managed to stay off the agenda too long .In doing so , it may have been shielded by public ambivalence towards a type of crime often ( wrongly ) perceived as victimless .Public attitudes need to change radically so that political will to tackle the proble will be stiffened .Legislation must be used – criminal must be dealth with as firmly as other criminals .That extensive fraud legislation is being drafted at present may indicate greater resolve in this area. ……..Other possible reasons ( why… Read more »
Just heard details of the reshuffle.
Coughlan has been taken out of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment. It is too late for the Dell workers and too late for the SR Technics workers.
And now, she will apply her great intellect to the Education system. Maybe she will have it operating like the health system when she is finished. We now have a minister for Education who is very fluent in bad language…..almost as bad as having an obese Minister for Health who is suing Nell McCafferty for asking questions relating to the biggest rumour in Irish politics…..
The thing is this bloody government is renaming Departments, how much is that going to cost, every sign, every piece of headed paper will all have to change, I know re-branding like that costs a fortune……..here are the examples of this nonsense!!!!!!! The Department of Social & Family Affairs will become the Department of Social Protection. The Department of Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs will become the Department of Community, Equality & Gaeltacht Affairs. The Department of Enterprise & Trade is now to become the Dept of Enterprise, Trade & Innovation. The Dept of Education is to become the Dept… Read more »