THE TRAVAILS of Bernard McNamara have to be a case of: if the worst can happen, it will.

When the Clare builder pulled out of the housing plans for a run-down estate in Inchicore, he could hardly have foreseen the extent of the reaction. By the weekend, he was being trounced in the Sunday papers as some kind of social pariah, catering for the rich (The Shelbourne) while abandoning the poor (Inchicore).

His company’s financial foundations were scrutinised with claims of high debt and his own building record, which included many worthwhile projects, was subject to revisionist criticism.

So far this week, no respite. Protests and banners outside City Hall evoked bitter memories of the Dublin Housing Action marches of the 1960s (yes, we go back that far!) which had severe long term effects upon the political establishment. His comments that Dublin City Council “changed the rules” has provoked that august body to claim millions allegedly owed by McN companies to them. And so on, in an unfolding scenario that could hardly have been predicted when he decided to walk away from Inchicore.

Bernard McNamara is undoubtedly a hard-working, decent man who built-up an amazing construction empire during the heyday of the property boom. But he is clearly out of touch with popular sentiment, which has the ability to bite back.

Like another titan of business, Jim Flavin of DCC, he is not immune to the knock-on effects of one decision – made at the time for what appeared “sensible” reasons.

How that one decision to pull out of Inchicore may have effects way beyond its location is another example that “the test of any chain is its weakest link”.