Ireland's answer to All the President's Men, (which has just been reissued in the US), comes out next month. Two different working titles: Bankrobbers and No Legitimate Reason were dropped in favour of Breaking the Bank - How the NIB Scandal Was Uncovered, by Charlie Bird and George Lee. Instead of Deep Throat their main source is Duffel-bag Man and the book details how they got their story, rather than the story itself, much of which is already known. It is a tale more of journalism than of banking, says Lee, who wrote it over two months this summer.
The RTE pair, who took the top prize at the ESB National Awards last week, say that while the two aspects of the NIB story - the off-shore accounts and the overcharging on certain accounts at home - are fully covered, there will also be some new material, which has not been broadcast.
Breaking the Bank, from John O'Connor's Blackwater Press, starts with the first tip-off phone call and follows the leads from there, through midnight meetings in car parks and up the Dublin mountains, to cold calls at private houses. It tells of intimidation and legal threats, and while protecting sources, it details where the reporters went, how information reached them, how the banks reacted, how they felt intimidated and/ or misled on various occasions, how RTE dealt with the emerging story and the meetings with their sources and the legal teams.
It is the first time, the authors believe, that the inner workings of RTE on such a delicate unfolding story have been revealed. Indeed, publication was delayed to allow Montrose see a draft of what is basically a thriller in which the RTE bosses play a central role.
And as for Duffel-bag Man, Charlie alone knows who he is, but he isn't saying.