PHIL FLYNN was, until last night, one of Ireland’s most prominent bankers, having made a 30-year journey from revolutionary to paid-up member of the Irish Establishment.
Mr Flynn, a former Sinn Fein vice-president, who was educated at Ruskin College in Oxford and the London School of Economics, insisted yesterday that Chesterton Finance — a tiny Cork-based lending company of which he is director — was “clean”, before he eventually resigned.
One of Chesterton Finance’s other directors, Ted Cunningham, is in custody after police allegedly found £2.3 million at his home.
Mr Flynn stepped down as chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland) last night, but continued to assert that he had not done anything wrong. In a statement, he said: “I am guilty of no wrong-doing, but the Bank and I have decided that it is best I step down from my position as non-executive chairman with immediate effect in order to ensure Bank of Scotland (Ireland) is not affected by recent publicity.”
Earlier yesterday, Mr Flynn told The Times: “I know Chesterton is clean. I had it checked out before I became a director six months ago. Chesterton is not a big operation — it does short-term lending to people who cannot get a loan elsewhere. The company lends against an asset and loans up to half of the asset’s value. It is a small company. At any time it has just £1 million to £2 million out on loan.”
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The accounts of Chesterton show that Mr Cunningham and an Irene Johnstone are the company’s only shareholders. Chesterton itself appears to have outstanding loans of only £2 million.
Mr Flynn came to be nonexecutive chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) via a long career as a union activist. Mr Flynn, who is close to Bertie Ahern, became general secretary of the Local Government and Public Service Union after working for Sinn Fein during the 1970s. He was cleared of being a member of the IRA after being held for three days in Liverpool.
By 1996 he had joined the Establishment. In March of that year he became chairman of the ICC Bank, then owned by the Irish Government. Four years later the Irish Government sold off the bank for about £275 million to the Bank of Scotland and it was renamed Bank of Scotland (Ireland). Mr Flynn remained as chairman.