A short verse in reaction to a financial scandal that broke in Monaghan Credit Union May 2006 whereby huge amounts of loans had turned into unrecoverable bad debt. Credit Unions are owned by the members and the scandal prompted a brief run on the institution and a lot of angry voices at the CU’s Annual General Meeting.

The Annual Generous Meeting of Monaghan Credit Union

Now to give a little background, gossip had been doing the rounds,
That a load of money had gone up in smoke,
But I wasn’t sure, till I heard a noise at the dur,
And at the sound from my sleep I awoke.

Read more: The Annual Generous Meeting of Monaghan Credit Union

In the letterbox was the post and I while I was eating the toast,
I realised something was definitely wrong,
The Credit Union report was all shiny, but be-God she was tiny,
And normally it was 20 pages long.

Was there was a shortage of paper? I detected a caper,
I wasn’t able to let the whole thing pass.
I couldn’t read what was reported and in me anger I snorted,
Cause I had to get a magnifying glass.

I sat at me writing bureau, and read about the 7 million euro,
That was described as a bad debt,
That’s a fierce amount of money, for cars, caviar or honey,
It’s enough to buy a personal jet.

What it sounds like to me, is they were giving money for free,
It’s enough to make a man loose his hair.
The meeting was for Wednesday night, and come wrong or right,
I said I’d have to be there.

Now it’s only fair and right, that what happened on the night
Should be reported to those who couldn’t make it,
There was a hell of a commotion and a mixture of emotion,
Some said management were trying to fake it.

Well who wasn’t there, there’s was the ex county mayor,
There were politicians, Gards and nurses,
And regardless of gender, they wanted to name and shame the spender,
There was booing, clapping and curses.

The people weren’t happy, one lad near wet his nappy,
No one was expecting the report they produced,
But for all the horror and shock, tis too late to turn back the clock,
The amount of reserves is badly reduced.

But the poor lassie on the stage, by god she deserves praise,
If criticism were like rain then she got ducked.
For she took an awful abuse, says one “was the Credit Union ran by a goose?”
Indeed, the whole thing seems pretty plucked.

Now the interest is a problem, cause the Regulator wont let ‘em
Dish out to every ordinary decent member,
And the staff who deal with the loot, got a pay rise to boot,
It’s the biggest farce in Monaghan I remember.

I’d say the thing will come right, but it’ll not happen overnight,
Cause for a while the Credit Union was off track.
No matter how the truth is bent, the money is already spent
And it’s not looking like it’ll be got back,

But sure money can’t be that tight, they’d a big buffet later that night,
There were heaps of sandwiches and onion rings,
True, interest wasn’t even a percent, but over to the hot plates I went
And I got me dividend in chips and chicken wings.

THE END