THE sub-prime experience is teaching people about due diligence. One accountant wrote and called repeatedly wanting to know the day our company was registered. Why would he care when this happened decades ago under long-departed management? Intrigued, I took his next call and was surprised that he was a diligent professional on a specific assignment, who knew such details were of only historical value.

Records often surprise: I'd thought Petrel originally explored the Irish offshore in the 1970s. It turned out it was first registered by legendary Armagh brickie and mining entrepreneur Pat Hughes on Christmas Eve 1982. Apparently office staff drove to Howth Head hoping to see gas flaring on the Kish bank, which it was then drilling.

Normally interrogators' eyes go glassy at detailed responses . . . not everyone shares the Irish obsession with historical quirks. Nonplussed, the Scottish accountant asked what time was it registered. There can't have been many on Christmas Eve!

22 August: AGM Heard at the AGM, one fund manager to another: "I've got Aids at 57." "That's nothing, " responds his colleague. "I've got C&C at 13.50."

24 August: St Stephen's Green Club, Dublin Dublin's hotels are crammed, but the Stephen's Green Club allow us to use its historic Reading Room for a Persian Gold Shareholders' meeting.

We forgot to warn the caterers, so pork products featured in the sandwiches.

Happily the Iranian diplomats were too polite to fuss.

In contrast to the stuffier London Pall Mall, the club is famous for its 'members' lunch table' where members drop in to meet friends they don't yet know. Originally the Viceroy's 'Union Club', it was rebranded by Daniel O'Connell in 1840 as liberal nationalism's answer to the neighbouring 'Hibernian United Services Club' (with which it recently merged). Members still respect the Liberator's custom of picking pratai off the platter with his "ngers. Famous 'Whigs on the Green' include WB Yeats and Horace Plunkett, founder of Ireland's co-op movement. The club was bourgeois, liberal nationalist and non-sectarian. Unusually for the time, early members included Quakers and Jews.

Though O'Connell was a native Gaelic speaker, he favoured the promotion of English for similar modernisation reasons as Ataturk or Peter the Great. What would he have thought of the Raidio Failte interview we conducted in his salon that afternoon? Carrying in refreshments, a surprised Eilin comfortably chatted with us in fluent Cavan Irish!

26 August: RTE, Dublin 4 Reviewing Sunday papers with RTE gets us up early. Former tanaiste Dick Spring leads the panel, so we'll discuss his specialties, from Labour's leadership to rugby and Kerry football.

Experience teaches what's not obvious: ego drives you to lead your party, but this absorbs your free time and jeopardises your family. And the odds are you'll stay in opposition after all the effort.

People's opinions usually fall into predictable patterns, though public figures' stated positions often differ from their private beliefs. Are they telling the truth publicly or privately?

Maybe both: public statements reflect party positions and prejudices. Most issues can be debated either way.

Experience can teach you the wrong things: the former tanaiste lamented that peace had destroyed Northern Ireland's moderates. But so what? John Hume delivered peace, which is more important than maintaining a party's vote. Spring is probably right that the Greens will be undermined by Fianna Fail's embrace.

But the Greens want to change the world. Even if their clothes are stolen they've still delivered. If they lose their seats they'll make more money in business.

Panels work best if you're not afraid to challenge the consensus: you occasionally look foolish, but people are generally receptive to different approaches. Everyone has a unique perspective . . . some experience that brings insight of interest to others. No one has a monopoly on good ideas.

Nothing disarms an adversary like willingness to modify your position.

Acknowledgement of other panellists' good points can build alliances.

Oblique attacks are most effective: your aim is to persuade.

Few human disputes are really 'zero-sum games', where you lose if others gain. Normally there is a way to grow the cake. Rachael English is skilled at drawing people out, watching for signs you've a point. Air time is precious and listener attention drifts, so it's best to hone points into sound-bites. Yet the Sunday morning format gives time to develop thoughts.

A question about the archbishop criticising astrology opened scope to consider how the Hubble telescope changed our view of the universe. I still don't really understand quantum mechanics! Much of the science we studied turns out to be wrong, so it's best to keep an open mind. Share tipsters make astrologers look scientific!

You sound most polished when your ideas are pre-formed . . . but it's more satisfying to think in real time.

Frank answers gain more credibility than Freudian slips surrender!

27 August: Clontarf A call from a German-speaking shareholder. Speaking to any stockholder is dangerous and speaking auf Deutsch doubly so. A moment of cowardly temptation to dodge the responsibility. But it's never as bad as you fear.

Though relatively conservative, Germans are open to contrarian investment in shattered countries.

They know infrastructure can be rebuilt by able people. One of the best investments last century was buying German blue-chips in 1949.

Later I discover we have an executive who was educated at Dublin German School. The bad grammar, ums and ahs were all unnecessary.

Alles in Ordnung!

28 August: NCB Stockbrokers, IFSC An invitation to meet NCB dealers over lunch. Dermot Desmond was brave to confront established brokers 26 years ago, but most thought his dream of converting Dublin's docks into a financial centre bonkers. Now both offspring exude success.

Hopefully brokers' openness to risky shares does not signal the end of a bull market!