Empty mansions make no comment as bankers head for sun and silence

NIB is the financial institution that gave new meaning to the phrase ‘bank holiday’. Normally, around now, everybody significant is missing in action. Gone. Covered in SP30.

Eating high-quality food. Reading low-quality books. Drinking a cross between a fruit salad, a chopped-up iceberg and a dose of methylated spirits in a big glass with a little paper parasol.

This year, not only is the Tánaiste still at her desk, but Charlie Bird and George Lee have put off their holidays, too. Having written the ‘Once Upon a Time’ for the top of this story, they had to be here to finish it off with ‘And NIB All Lived Unhappily Ever After’.