[3] Following this, he joined aid agency Concern and from 1969 he spent a number of years organising food supplies to the Republic of Biafra, the short-lived secessionist state in southeastern Nigeria.
[8] Fingleton drew a salary of €1.3m in 2005, including a €500,000 bonus making his earnings on a par with chief executives of the larger banks.
In 2007, after failed talks with Germany's HypoVereinsbank and GE Money, he almost sold the building society to Iceland's Landsbanki.
Fingleton set Irish Nationwide's asset value close to €1.3 billion to reflect the equity he expected to be released from any deals.
[4] Landsbanki who were initially attracted by Irish Nationwide's deposit book, backed off, unnerved by the level of the society's commercial lending.
[9] Fingleton had a reputation as an autocrat[5] and effectively ran a one-man lending department with loans of over €500,000 being personally approved by him.
[10] When Irish Nationwides home loans manager Brian Fitzgibbon sued to stop the building society from sacking him in 2007, it reinforced the impression that Fingleton totally dominated the institution.
In his evidence, Fitzgibbon alleged that Fingleton over-ruled his decision not to lend money to rogue solicitors Micheal Lynn and Thomas Byrne to whom the building society loaned over €10m each.
Fitzgibbon also stated that many loans issued by the Irish Nationwide had not been approved by its credit committee, which existed only to satisfy the requirements of the Central Bank of Ireland.
He also provided a loan for Celia Larkin, the ex-partner of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, without requiring any proof of income.
[1] The state was eventually forced to inject €2.7 billion into the society to shore up its balance sheet and prevent the collapse of a government-guaranteed institution.
The idea was abandoned and Fingleton refused to stay on as the chief executive unless he was paid the same amount as in 2007, when he had received a €1m bonus.