Brian Cowen at The 2013 Fianna Fail Ard Fheis
Mr Patrick Honohan [Governor of the Central Bank] said former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan had told him that he (Lenihan) argued for Anglo and Irish Nationwide to be nationalised on September 29, 2008.
The then minister also said he expressed the opinion that junior bondholders should have been excluded from the guarantee.
According to Mr Honohan, Mr Lenihan was overruled on both fronts.
When asked who had rejected the former Finance Minister’s view, he said the Taoiseach and Attorney General were the other political figures present on the night.
The role of the Attorney General (at the time it was barrister Paul Gallagher) is to advise the Cabinet. So it is reasonable to assume that Mr Lenihan was “overruled” by Mr Cowen.
Brian Cowen has even more banking questions to answer (David Murphy, RTÉ)
Meanwhile…
Brian Cowen knew from at least March 2008 of [Sean] Quinn’s giant gamble on Anglo [he controlled 28 per cent of the bank] after Sean FitzPatrick rang him on his mobile. In April 2008 he attended a dinner [at Heritage House] where he was introduced to Anglo’s board and executives by his college friend Fintan Drury, then an Anglo director. On Monday, July 28, 14 days after the Maple transaction, Cowen played golf and had dinner with Fitzpatrick, spending all day with him….
Did Brian Cowen Know About Anglo’s €2.3 Billion Loan To Quinn? (Broadsheet, July 30, 2012)
Meanwhile…
Tom Lyons and Brian Carey, in their book The Fitzpatrick Tapes, wrote that Brian Cowen met with Fintan Drury, who founded and sold Drury Communications which acted as PR advisor to Anglo, at least ten times between September 2004 and May 2008.
In contrast, Cowen met officials from the Financial Regulator only eight times during his term in office.
In relation to the dinner at Heritage House, Lyons and Carey wrote:
There was, according to FitzPatrick no discussion of the ghost at the banquet, Sean Quinn, or of FitzPatrick’s urgent phone call to Cowen only six weeks before. To an outsider it seems extraordinary that the issue would not have surfaced at the Heritage House dinner or that FitzPatrick did not draw Cowen aside to update him.
‘Sorry. I am not saying that it was right or wrong. I just didn’t do those things. I never saw politicians as important in that way. Clearly they were important but I never saw them as to be used or anything like that. I never saw…It never struck me once in my whole life that Fintan [Drury] would be very useful because he was on our board and because he knew Cowen so well. It never struck me once. In my life, I never asked him to do anything with the minister for finance when he was on the board of the bank ever. Never even gone near it.’
Even in exceptional circumstances surrounding the events of March 2008, there was no attempt to seek government support? ‘No’.”
The book also states that Drury resigned a day after the board of Anglo met at the five-star Fota Island hotel and golf resort in which Morgan Stanley gave a confidential presentation outlining Sean Quinn’s CFD position and Anglo had given the problem the code name ‘Maple’. The meeting saw David Drumm dial into the meeting from Boston. This was the last meeting before the Maple Ten transaction.
Mr Drury didn’t attend the Fota meeting and never publicly discussed the reasons for his resignation, according to Lyons and Carey.
Meanwhile…
[Business journalist] Simon Carswell: “Can I just put it in another way? If Sean Quinn then, as you put it, through 2008 as the share price was falling and he was deeply, in a heavily loss-making position in the margin calls why didn’t he say ‘no I don’t want your loans then, Anglo Irish Bank?’”
Patricia Gilheaney [Quinn family friend]: “Because he was told to put on the green jersey.” And that came from political pressure aswell and that will come out, Simon. And I think you know that.”
Carswell: “Well, perhaps you can explain that because there’s a reference in the Mail on Sunday at the weekend in an interview he gave where he had a conversation with Brian Cowen. I mean do you know anything about that?”
Gilheany: “I believe that Brian Cowen rang him in the days after, when Quinn Insurance went into administration.”
Tonight with Vincent Browne, July 29, 2012
Good times.
Yesterday: “They Bought Into It”
(Photocall Ireland)
An emotional moment in the crowd as Cowen proudly shows he knows his left from his right
Or some weird stigmata party.
Isn’t he working for Goldman Sachs or the likes these days?
he is on the board of topaz, i believe.
Goldman Sachs/Topaz, potato/potahto
He was appointed to the board of Denis’s Topaz in May 2014, so if you haven’t boycotted those petrol stations already, you have an additional reason.
He co-founded (if that is the right term for such a small outfit) O’Donovan Cowen Solicitors in Tullamore, county Offaly, but its website doesn’t indicate he works there today.
I can’t recall his annual pension (he’s 54 years of age) but I think it’s around €140,000 a year.
Don’t know of any other publicised roles; other than Topaz, he’s a director of Cowen Consulting (set up in Sept 2013, has yet to file accounts) and the Simon Community in the Midlands. It would be natural for him to take on consulting roles a la Tony Blair, and most ex-leaders, but if he has, any such roles have remained below the radar. His brother is the shadow environment minister (which must place Bazza in a tough corner when he tries to criticise Irish Water and its dealings with Denis’s Sierra/GMC), and as evidenced by the pic above, Brian is held in high esteem by some in the FF party, so he probably has some residual political clout.
In general though, he’s a toxic brand (FFer in a FG world, gombeen politics, banking and property crashes, IMF bailout) with an inestimable half life.
He’s clearly ordering from the bar.
Live long and prosper.
he thinks he’s driving on a country road.
The armbone’s connected to the handbone. la la la la la la
His efforts to differentiate his ‘arse’ from his ‘elbow’ aren’t talked about in polite FF company.
Cowen demostrates the classic “5 pints, please.” sitting stance to rapturous applause.
And that’s just an aperitif.
Very obvious from day one, politicians copped if they get a bailout they can help themselves to a cheeky few million here and there for their “outside consultancy” mates who in turn feed them “political donations” for their campaigns. Even if everyone gets caught theres no jail time, no convictions, no fines and a healthy 6 figure early pension for whoever volunteers to be a scapegoat.
Irish politics 101
Think that is probably more accurate than making out that Cowen was a fool. Those on the inside looted all they could.
+1… theres no fools here, just liars and thieves
Clowen was out of his depth that night and listened to his banker mates… FF 20 odd % in the polls. Its a great little country!
…no wonder he got so uptight when accused of financial treason…as I remember he scurried to ‘the last refuge of a scoundrel’.
Paul Gallagher who then went on to represent ANGLO in all their major court cases?? How was he not conflicted???
Jesus wept…
He also wrote the NAMA legislation he went on to have loads of well paid arguments about.
A brilliant lawyer, but he should have turned down that work, in my not very learned opinion.
Donie Cassidy and the way he might look at you…
He looks like someone who escaped from a Twin Peaks dream sequence.
Once again with the various players in the banking inquiry, it’s the classic question of inept or corrupt or both.
In this case I would say inept. Calling in a banker to ask them if its a good idea to save yer skins is only ever going to get one answer. Unless you can tag on… and if you are wrong, you will go to jail for the rest of your natural life..
Maybe we could speed things up by just offering A, B or C as answers.
When you start asking the question, what did certain fianna failers have to lose, as well as their big business friends and doners, it all starts coming together. BIFFO is up to his neck in it.
Biffo up to his neck in doners. THAT I can believe.
https://www.google.de/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=doner
TIME FOR JAIL.
The C Word is used randomly now however, if ever there was as a reason to use it, it’s looking at that shower of C…ts”.