The chairman of Dunloe Ewart plc, Mr Noel Smyth, spent two days undergoing medical tests, which included a brain scan, before the banks agreed to commit to a €19 million (£14.9 million) loan.
Mr Smyth told the third day of an insider trading trial in the Circuit Criminal Court of his efforts to bring about a reverse takeover by Dunloe House (now Dunloe Ewart).
During his evidence, Mr Smyth said the Stock Exchange expected people to have a certain "institutional aura. I never had that. I was described by Ben Dunne as his gunslinger."
Mr Philip Byrne, until recently the managing director of Dunloe Ewart, has been charged with two counts of insider trading involving 260,000 Dunloe House shares between April 27th, 1997 and May 9th, 1997. Mr Byrne (44), of Trafalgar Terrace, Monkstown, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty.
Mr Smyth told Mr George Birmingham SC, for the prosecution, that he had known Mr Byrne socially for a number of years. The two men played golf together.
In September/October 1996, he suggested to Mr Byrne that he join his, Mr Smyth's, company, Aviette Ltd, and oversee a proposal to merge Aviette with Mr Phil Monahan's Monarch Properties as well as properties in Cherrywood, Co Dublin, owned by Mr Monahan and Mr Smyth.
The merged entities would then be taken into Dunloe by way of a reverse takeover.
According to Mr Smyth, it was always envisaged if the deal went ahead, it would involve raising funding through the sale of shares.
Mr Byrne had been an executive with Green Isle Foods but was finishing in that position at the time Mr Smyth made the offer.
Mr Byrne thought about the offer, which involved a salary similar to what he received from Green Isle but "the rewards would be more in terms of making capital". Mr Byrne joined the Aviette board on April 1st, 1997.
Early on it was decided Dunloe would need €31.7 million to develop the properties it was going to absorb. Davy Corporate Finance was approached to discuss raising the money in the markets.
Mr Smyth said he thought the equity would be cheap compared with raising money from the banks. "Banks are always looking for an arm and a leg," he said. This time he was going to ask "the unwashed public" to give him the money.
In mid-April 1997 he met Mr Tom Byrne of Davy Corporate Finance. He could not recall if Mr Philip Byrne was present. Mr Byrne said Davy would not underwrite a share issue and did not believe €31.7 million could be raised.
Mr Smyth said he could remember standing outside Davys on Dawson Street afterwards "and being quite agitated". He had gone into the meeting believing there would be no problem raising the funding.
He decided he would try both NCB Stockbrokers and International Investments and Underwriting Ltd. He "wanted to give Davys one in the eye".
