The indelible smudge of bankruptcy was erased just four months before he died, aged 88, last Saturday. Sir Anthony O’Reilly had deserved better than that from the bankers. He was dubbed “Golden Boy” as an Olympian sporting hero on his way to become “Ireland’s first business superstar”. It is not quite a log-cabin-to-the-White-House fable, yet the lad from the north Dublin suburbs became a billionaire with commensurate influence in public life across the world. Alas, Sir Anthony’s pristine reputation was traduced by a bankruptcy surfaced from a witches’ brew of envy, avarice and politicised intrigue. Of course, when it was…

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