"Can you say whether your bank has an account in the name of a man
called Michael Collins?" - Alan Bell, official bank inquiry.
In 1919, the revolutionary Irish government launches an audacious plan
to crowdfund the equivalent of 30,000,000 to fund a counter-state in
open defiance of British rule in Ireland. Half the funds are to be
raised in Ireland and half in America. This start-up government is
determined not only to replace the British administration in Ireland but
also to implement its own industrial and financial policies, including
establishing a national bank.
But the funding campaign in America is delayed owing to regulatory
obstacles. It is imperative that the domestic funding campaign succeeds.
Without funds, the counter-state government is doomed to failure. A
financial 'Ho Chi Minh Trail' is established; couriers secretly begin
distributing three million promotional leaflets throughout the country
and carrying subscriptions to Dublin; Head Office staff ensure that
receipts are issued, loan registers updated and coded financial accounts
maintained. The money is laundered into bank accounts and converted into
gold using a 'gold exchange network'.
An uncompromising former detective, now a near-retired magistrate, is
summoned to Dublin to go after the money. This is the untold history of
the fight for the revolutionary government's funds, the bank inquiry
that shook the financial establishment and the first battle in the
intelligence war.
