Unflattering descriptions of accountants seem to be de rigeur at luncheons in Dublin these days, and this week the chief executive of Anglo-Irish Bank, Mr Sean Fitzpatrick, added another one to the collection.

It is The Margin's sad duty to report that, addressing the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants, he described the work of the profession thus: "Accountants are people who turn up to the battlefield when the war is over and then all they do is proceed to count the dead and bayonet the wounded."

While the bloody description made some guests wince, there is no denying Mr Fitzpatrick's insight he spent many years working as an accountant himself.