Country was held to ransom by mortgage triads

In his article ‘Stronger Action Needed’, Tim Pat Coogan (Irish Examiner, Aug 22) blames corrupt and lazy politicians, senior civil servants, bankers, businessmen, lawyers, accountants and stockholders for Ireland’s affliction. But he has overlooked the dreaded fiscal triads, who scoured city streets and rural roads seeking mortgagees.

These triads would deliver people to yuppie bank managers, caught in the competitive frenzy of mortgage-sales targets. Emerging in gangs of threes from designated collection banks, and armed with shillelaghs, knobkerries and plastic hand grenades, freelance triads were trained to identify people free of financial burden. Their prime targets were adults who strode with jovial confidence and ready smile along pavement or shaded lane.

I happened to be visiting one of these collection banks, having heard of the ‘easy brown envelope filling service’, when a man was brought in by a triad.