The site of the former Irish Glass Bottle plant, Ringsend, Dublin (within red contours). It was purchased at the peak of the boom in 2006 for €412 million, by a consortium led by developer Bernard McNamara. In the same year, Ireland's biggest bank AIB, sold part of its Dublin headquarters, the Bank Centre, to developer Seán Dunne. SEE: Irish Glass Bottle Site: How the State purchased property it already owned!

Irish Property Crash:  When the base rate in the UK hit 15% in 1990, the commercial property market crashed in London and a high profile developer victim later told the Financial Times that in the few short boom years that were fuelled by tax cuts and good feeling from privatisations, he used to wake up every morning thinking:"Thank God, I'm not still a chartered accountant."

In Ireland, accountants did move into the property business during the bubble, which was a better bet than charging by the hour; chartered accountant Seán FitzPatrick, built the builders' bank Anglo Irish; two boomtime governors of the Bank of Ireland, Laurence Crowley and Richard Burrows, were chartered accountants and at AIB, another chartered accountant, Lochlann Quinn, shared the boom years as chairman with Dermot Gleeson who the establishment considered an accomplished lawyer.

Two of the chief culprits for the property bubble and subsequent crash, had also an association with accounting: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was a hospital bookkeeper before entering politics and Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy was a chartered accountant.

I used be an accountant and it is usually worthwhile to listen to a clued-in professional. For example, it is foolish to start a business without  seriously considering the views of a doubter.  

The world also needs risk takers and developers but when accountants become players on the gravy train, who is there to blow the whistle?.

The news that developer Bernard McNamara had overreached - -  in effect joined the frenzied competition in the crazy year of 2006 for Dublin sites --  is sad as is the plight of the tens of thousands of victims of public misrule in the shadowland of unemployment, far from media glare and interest.     

In February 2004, The Sunday Independent reported that Dan McLaughlin was the toast of the Society of Chartered Surveyors annual dinner at the Burlington Hotel:"In a virtuoso performance, he declared that this country is currently enjoying an unprecedented "Golden Age of Construction" and - to thunderous applause - announced that "the Celtic Tiger is Back".

If the definition of an optimist is one who sees the bottle half full and a pessimist says it's half empty, the BofI economic guru left his audience of 1,300 property professionals in no doubt where he stands. "The economy in general has emerged from a period of sub-trend growth in remarkably rude health and is poised to enjoy a much more favourable global backdrop, which will propel Irish growth towards the potential of 6% over the next eighteen months," Dr McLaughlin opined."

Dan McLaughlin like Bertie Ahern didn't have to take any serious risks and whether or not Bernard McNamara was part of the drink-fuelled revivalist type meeting in early 2004, I cannot say, but in 2006, he bought the hotel where it was staged.

It was a time when there were many Elmer Gantrys with eager audiences, seeking their promised land.

The Chinese say that when you ride on a tiger you cannot dismount.

Maybe, but whether in Wall Street or Dublin, when is enough enough?

Riding the Celtic Tiger, propelled by mass hysteria, did not have to end like this for the current and future victims.

As for developers, there is a simple word for personal guarantees when you can already command more cordon bleu food, drink and gilded shelter, you will ever need: crazy!