Irish Charm With Germans Leads Nation Out of Bailout Wilderness
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As a cold day last February turned to early evening twilight, Alan Dukes strode through the lobby of Dublin’s Merrion Hotel when a familiar figure lurking in the shadows stopped him.
Sean Kinsella, private secretary to Finance Minister Michael Noonan, told the banker that his boss wanted to see him. The pair scurried across the road to Noonan’s office. There, Dukes learned for the first time of the plan to close the bank he led, the former Anglo Irish Bank Corp., emblem of the financial boom and bust that had crippled Ireland.