Patrick O’Sullivan Greene

CGAI congratulates Patrick O’Sullivan Greene, a Member of CGAI, on the publication of his first Book, Crowdfunding the Revolution: The First Dáil Loan and the Battle for Irish Independence.

For the benefit of our Members who we will not be able to meet in person at a CGAI Xmas event due to current COVID-19 restrictions, we have secured an exclusive interview which Patrick recently gave to Ronan McGreevy, Irish Times journalist and author as part of the recent Dublin Book Festival and in the apt surrounds of the National Gallery of Ireland.

Click Here to Listen

James Kavanagh, Chairman, CGAI asked Patrick to summarise ~ In 1919, the revolutionary Irish government launched an audacious plan to finance a counter-state in open defiance of British rule in Ireland. Half the money was to be raised in Ireland and half in America. This start-up government was determined not only to replace the British administration in Ireland but also to implement its own industrial and financial policies, including establishing a national bank. It was imperative that the domestic funding campaign succeed. Without funds, the counter-state government would be doomed to failure. A financial ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ was established; couriers secretly began distributing three million promotional leaflets throughout the country and carrying subscriptions to Dublin. The money was laundered into bank accounts and converted into gold using a ‘gold exchange network’. This is the untold history of the fight for the revolutionary government’s funds, the bank inquiry that shook the financial establishment and the first battle in the intelligence war and a must read for those who want to read a business book disguised as a history book, but for which has some implicit insights into our world of corporate governance.

About Patrick O’Sullivan Greene B.Comm, M’ACC, FCA

Patrick O’Sullivan Greene is from Killarney, Co. Kerry and has been an activist investor for almost twenty years. Patrick is an award-winning equity analyst and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. More interested in business than pure finance, he expresses his entrepreneurial spirit through roles as a co-founder, director, mentor, and sometimes investor, in start-up companies. Patrick has worked in Dublin, London, New York, and France.