HomePublished BooksBanksters

Banksters

By: David Murphy (MA, MSc), Martina Devlin
Publisher: Hodder Headline Ireland
Published: September 2010
Pages: 320
Categories: Business
Language: English
Available as: Paperback
On sale at:
ISBN-13: 9781444705133

How A Powerful Elite Destroyed Ireland's Wealth 1929...On Wall Street, during the worst financial crisis the world had ever seen, the word "Banksters" was coined to describe those ruthless individuals who had gambled away the country's wealth. 2009...The phrase "Banksters" is resurrected as David Murphy and Martina Devlin describe the shocking story of how the Irish banking system was brought to its knees by a corrupt elite driven by profit and greed.Banksters examines the events which triggered the near collapse of Ireland's banking system, when it unfolded that a privileged 'golden circle', caught up in a frenzy of greed and opportunism, had gambled and lost with the deposits and pensions of the Irish people.It charts how an unprecedented orgy of over-borrowing -- fuelled by bankers who threw out the rule book on lending and reckless tax breaks from cavalier politicians --caused a massively over-inflated property bubble. While bank shares climbed to dizzying heights, profits soared and executives earned enormous bonuses, those who cried 'stop!' were shouted down. But there was no promised 'soft landing' when, in September 2008, bankers overnight went from being pillars of society to pariahs. When the word 'Ireland' became synonymous with corruption in the global lending markets. When a generation learned it would pay a high price for the arrogance and greed of its business elite. Banksters is a hard-hitting read that, were it fiction, might not be believed. In describing the key players, their motivations, personalities and lavish lifestyles it poses the all-important questions: who is answerable -- and will all the culprits be called to account? As RTE's business correspondent, David Murphy has been in the front line of the banking crisis daily. The 2008 winner of Business Broadcast Journalist of the year, he is a former deputy business editor of the Irish Independent. Martina Devlin is a best-selling author and award-winning journalist writing weekly columns in the Irish Independent.

Other Books From this Category

View More From This Category

Other Books From this Author

  • 3 Oct 2025 - The Lilliput Press Ltd

    Charlotte: A Novel

    By Martina Devlin

    Charlotte Brontë dazzled the world with some of literature’s most vital, richly-drawn characters. She spent her brief but extraordinary life in search of love – and eventually found it with Arthu...

  • 12 Sep 2024 - The Lilliput Press Ltd

    Charlotte: A Novel

    By Martina Devlin

    Charlotte Brontë dazzled the world with some of literature’s most vital, richly-drawn characters. She spent her brief but extraordinary life in search of love – and eventually found it with Arthu...

  • 12 May 2022 - The Lilliput Press Ltd

    Edith

    By Martina Devlin

  • 5 May 2022 - The Lilliput Press Ltd

    Edith

    By Martina Devlin

    Martina Devlin, an award-winning columnist for the Irish Independent and podcaster for Dublin City of Literature City of Books, has delivered a new novel based on the life of Edith Somerville of 'Some...

  • 1 Oct 2018 - Poolbeg Press Ltd

    'Truth and Dare: Stories About Women Who Shaped Ireland'

    By Martina Devlin

    Leaders. Rebels. Pioneers. Short stories about some of Ireland's trailblazing women by award-winning writer Martina Devlin. In this collection we encounter Countess Markievicz back from the dead to...

  • 20 Sep 2017 - New Island Books

    'Dogs Enjoy the Morning'

    By Martina Devlin, Benedict Kiely

    Dogs Enjoy the Morning is an uproarious novel full of weird and wonderful characters set in Cosmona, a fictitious village somewhere in Ireland . . . The doctor and his loving wife are secretly watc...

  • 1 Mar 2016 - Poolbeg Press Ltd

    About Sisterland

    By Martina Devlin

    Welcome to Sisterland. A world ruled by women. A world designed to be perfect Here, women and men are kept separate. Women lead highly controlled and suffocating lives, while men are subordinate used ...

  • 9 Sep 2015 - Ward River Press

    About Sisterland

    By Martina Devlin

    Welcome to Sisterland. A world ruled by women. A world designed to be perfect Here, women and men are kept separate. Women lead highly controlled and suffocating lives, while men are subordinate used ...

  • 27 May 2015 - Poolbeg

    The House Where it Happened

    By Martina Devlin

    It is 1711, and the Ulster-Scots community in a remote corner of Ireland is in turmoil. A pretty young newcomer is accusing one woman after another of witchcraft. But Ellen, the serving girl in the ho...

  • 27 Oct 2014 - eBookPartnership.com

    The Hollow Heart: The true story of one woman's desire to give life and how it almost destroyed her

    By Martina Devlin

    In three attempts at in-vitro fertilization Martina Devlin lost nine embryos. Or nine 'maybe babies' as she thought of them. But she also lost her marriage and her dreams of being a mother. The Ho...

  • 30 Jan 2014 - Harper

    Be Careful What You Wish For

    By Martina Devlin

    From the author of THREE WISE MEN, a wise, funny and uplifiting novel of women, men, love and friendship. Have you ever had a secret you couldn't even tell your very best friend? Molly and Helen...

  • 2 Jul 2010 - Harper Collins

    Three Wise Men

    By Martina Devlin

    A warm, witty and wise novel about love, friendship and being in your thirties. Gloria, Eimear and Kate have been friends since they were a trio of six-year-olds cast as the Three Wise Men in the n...

  • 22 May 2009 - Hachette Ireland

    Banksters

    By Martina Devlin, David Murphy (MA, MSc)

    1929... On Wall Street, during the worst financial crisis the world had ever seen, the word "Banksters" was coined to describe those ruthless individuals who had gambled away the country's wealth. ...

  • 25 Mar 2008 - Poolbeg

    Ship of Dreams

    By Martina Devlin

    A group of people meet on one of the Titanic's lifeboats, saved from death by random chance. These survivors, from different nationalities and walks of life, have only one factor in common: all have s...

  • 14 May 2004 - Poolbeg

    Temptation

    By Martina Devlin

    One thing Kitty Kennedy learnt from her two marriages was that not all men and women were meant to live together..forever. Alone again on New Year's Day Kitty is inspired with the ideal New Year's re...

  • 15 Jul 2003 - Poolbeg

    Venus Reborn

    By Martina Devlin

    "There is no shame in being adopted. It means you were wanted. And chosen." Venus Macken is back in Ireland after more than a decade in London, but she has mixed feelings about the move. Except ... h...

View More From This Author