THERE WAS an austere feel to the presentation of Bank of Ireland’s less-than-stellar half-year results on Wednesday, hosted by chief executive Richie Boucher (pictured right).

Not that this could be attributed to the institution’s Protestant traditions that recently made the headlines.

In his new book, Follow The Money, celebrity economist David McWilliams recounts a conversation that he claims he had with former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick just weeks before the banker’s ignominious departure from the now State-owned institution over his secret loans.

At the time, talk was circulating that Anglo could be reversed into Bank of Ireland or AIB to prop up the troubled commercial lender and the wider industry.

FitzPatrick allegedly told McWilliams that “no f**king Protestant” was going to take over his bank.

“This was anathema to him. Bank of Ireland was always seen as the Establishment bank, almost the Ascendancy bank,” writes McWilliams.

“Many described it as a Church of Ireland bank, while AIB was seen as the ultimate bureaucratic bank.

“He [FitzPatrick] railed against these big banks, claiming that Anglo did things differently.”

FitzPatrick at least got the last part right, as we all now know to our cost.

Anyway, Boucher presented the lender’s results this week, next to the bank’s finance director, John O’Donovan, and the head of the capital markets division, Denis Donovan.

Asked about his views of FitzPatrick’s alleged comments on the religious ethos attributed to the bank, Boucher said: “I have got O’Donovan and Donovan beside me. My chairman is called Molloy, so I don’t know.”

His comment at least raised a laugh in what was an otherwise downbeat briefing.