Eating humble pie

AT A National Enterprise conference hosted by Clonmel Chamber of Commerce in 2010, local businessman George Mordaunt brought the audience of government ministers, TDs, captains of industry and local business owners to tears with his shocking account of how the recession had affected his health, his family, and the business he had nurtured all his working life.

The room fell silent as Mordaunt admitted to having “fucked up” by taking his eye off the ball in the good times; described the devastating impact of being hounded by the banks for money they’d been only too glad to advance him in the boom years; and spoke of his fear of losing all that he had worked so hard to achieve.

The reaction to Mordaunt’s story was unprecedented. Within days, it had moved from the front page of every local newspaper into the national press, and onto national radio and television.