Angry shareholders vent their spleen at Anglo board

A roomful of 800 angry shareholders, some of whom had lost thousands of euro in life savings in Anglo Irish Bank, today provided as much tension and drama as when the first Irish parliament convened in the same venue exactly 90 years ago.

A roomful of 800 angry shareholders, some of whom had lost thousands of euro in life savings in Anglo Irish Bank, today provided as much tension and drama as when the first Dáil convened in the same venue exactly 90 years ago.

Famous investors like billionaire entrepreneur Sean Quinn did not attend but Senator Shane Ross and football pundit Eamon Dunphy vented their fury in the three-hour showdown with the bank’s executives.

Seething shareholders were met with mellow lounge music in the Round Room of Dublin’s Mansion House but it did little to soothe their hot tempers.

Ironically, the EGM was held in the same historic venue where the first Dáil met on January 21, 1918 to proclaim liberty, justice and equality for Irish citizens.

The contrite 12-member board, surrounded by a small army of game spin doctors, gingerly mounted the podium and took their seats in the firing line.

They may have been listening more closely than usual when the location of the emergency exits were announced.

An opening apology by newly-appointed chairman Donal O’Connor fell on deaf ears as the first shareholder demanded the bank’s board be sacked immediately.

High-profile Senator Ross likened the bank’s actions to closing the stable door after the horse had bolted.

Applause erupted when 85-year-old John O’Leary, of West Cork, called for Mr Ross to be nominated to the bank’s board.

As supporters clapped, he added: “These loans should have been discovered and stopped eight years ago.”

He claimed that shareholders like himself would only be due tiny amounts of money because the value of the bank has been run down.

Anglo Irish has 20,000 shareholders but 15,000 of them own fewer than 5,000 shares.

The bank attracted many big hitters on the London and Dublin stock market floors.

The Financial Regulator, who failed to act on the eight-year-old Anglo Irish loans scandal, forced the Fermanagh man to quit as head of his Quinn Insurance firm last October after he used company funds to cover his €300m losses.

There was one dissenting voice. A lone investor paid tribute to former chief Sean FitzPatrick for building up the bank from €5m to its 2007 value of €13bn.

“I think he did a wonderful job over the years and one mistake and he gets destroyed,” he said.

Other calls were made for High Court inspectors or even the Criminal Assets Bureau to be appointed to investigate Anglo Irish.

“It was a cosy cartel at the top, with no supervision, and nobody to keep an eye on each other,” another man said.

He added: “A lot of small shareholders have lost their shirts.

“Anglo Irish is a cowboy bank and, until the cowboys are gone, we won’t have the solution.”

Another contributed: “Anglo Irish is in a financial skip at the moment.”

Somebody else threatened a class action by shareholders: “There is going to be a lot of law and a lot of litigation before this is all over.”

Further groans of anger rippled across the room when it was revealed that the board, including Mr FitzPatrick, have already been given their bonuses for 2008 because they were signed off several months before the scandal broke.

A rare peal of laughter broke out when one shareholder said: “The patient is dead. The Minister for Finance administered the last rites last night. This is the wake today and we won’t know what we get until the will is read.”

One small investor recalled last year’s AGM when he claimed board members were wined and dined overnight in a hotel while shareholders were given “cold coffee and stale sandwiches”.

Shareholders will meet Anglo Irish directors again at this year’s AGM, which is due to take place in mid-February.