From riches to rags - Life as the nouveau poor

I’M afraid I had to part company with the lovely Joe Duffy.

I just outgrew him, really. When I was thrust into being a full-time mom, four years ago, and was frightened and broke, he was my lifeline.

I religiously listened every day, and duly absorbed all his callers’ pain, and cried where appropriate. I took comfort from feeling that I was a truly compassionate member of society and was all for the underdog. It was when I began shouting, at the radio, phrases like ‘get over it’ and ‘move on’, that I realised that I was no longer absorbing people’s woes and had become practical in my thinking. It was time to get off my ass and fight the big elephant in the room. I realised I was healing quite nicely. I also realised that we are all the same, and even though Joe is a great advocate for social injustices, I wonder why we only sympathise with the underdog? Why do we judge and measure so much? We have all lost in this recession, the pensioner who has lost €30 in his weekly income, the civil servant whose pay cheque has been ruthlessly attacked, and the likes of me, self-employed, lost my business, income, status, self-esteem, and possibly my home, overnight. I didn’t live in a palatial house overlooking the harbour, didn’t have homes in Dublin, London and Florida, didn’t drive a Bentley or have my wine flown in from my favourite vineyard in the south of France. Enter Paul Carroll, who had all of the latter, and why not? He had built up an impressive property portfolio worth €40m and was living the dream.

He owed the banks €16m, so they bankrupted him and he was left with zilch, nada, not a pot to piss in, just like moi. It must have been harder for him, though, I thought, after meeting him, with a wife and five kids who were used to ‘the high life’, as my mother would call it. Expensive hobbies, huge living costs, and then nothing. Lucky for him, he went through bankruptcy in the UK and has now relocated to Howth and is starting from scratch. An accountant by trade, he has become an expert in insolvency and has written a fantastic booklet about same.

I had read about neo finance and asked him to meet me, as I was in despair at the thoughts of losing my home, and he did. I am a good judge of character, and, half an hour into our meeting, I realised that he was a true find. He made sense of the insolvency bill, spoke in layman’s terms, and gave me huge reassurance. He is not afraid of the banks and is just the man to sort them. He has dispelled all my fears and, as he has been through it all, he just gets it. I would implore anyone in my situation to get an insolvency expert onto your case. It’s not as expensive as you might think, but it will be the best investment you will ever make.

My fear is now gone and, for that Mr Carroll, I will be eternally gratefully.

So, come on Joe, give everyone a fair hearing. Can you imagine the scenario: ‘Joe, I lost my Bentley and have to drive my kids to school in a Ford Mondeo and I’m now reduced to drinking off-the-shelf wines’. Oh god, that’s terrible, terrible Paul.