Three wise men launch new insolvency book

Earlier on Tuesday evening, there was a book launch at the Dublin offices of Chartered Accountants Ireland for a weighty new publication, Buying and Selling Insolvent Companies and Businesses in Ireland, published by Bloombury. Given the state of the economy, it should be on the Leaving Cert curriculum.

Written by a barrister, a solicitor and an accountant (cue the "walk into a bar" jokes), its authors are the formidable troika of Ted Harding, the former Sunday Business Post editor who was called to the bar a few years back; the high-profile insolvency solicitor Bill Holohan; and Ger O'Mahoney, a partner at PwC.

The book is aimed at insolvency practitioners, who appear to have replaced property developers as the new fat cats of the Irish economy, such is the level of fees they must be racking up.

The Three Wise Guys told me of a little in-joke they had while writing the book. They apparently used the working title of Corporate Reorganisation and Positioning, or Crap for short.

I thumbed through their impressive book at the launch, and can assure you it is nothing of the sort.