Insults and an egg thrown at hapless board of once-proud bank

Bank of Ireland executives had to dodge a barrage of criticism and, in one case, an egg thrown by an angry shareholder when the 228-year-old institution met for what could be its last annual meeting under private ownership yesterday.

The lender, founded in 1783, is facing falling into majority state control - a move that would complete a clean sweep of government-owned domestic lenders - as it scrambles to raise €4.2 billion (3.7bn).

The bank said earlier this month the government's stake could rise above 75 per cent from 36 per cent, depending on the outcome of a government-supported rights issue and a debt-for-equity swap. Yesterday BoI executives first had to negotiate a University College Dublin hall full of furious investors. "You told lies after lies after lies," Pat King, one of many shareholders who have seen the their shares drop from nearly €10 in 2007 to little over 10 cents four years later, told chairman Pat Molloy and his board. "But let us assume you are not liars and you are just incompetent. If you are incompetent, then you should shuffle off. Why do not you just go … We do not trust you," King said.

One shareholder threw an egg at Mr Molloy, narrowly missing him. Another bank chairman had an egg thrown at him two years ago and executives have become accustomed to outrage at annual meetings since the government was forced to shut down two lenders, take over another two and prepare to add a third as a result of the banking crisis.

Mark Veal, representing his 90-year-old mother at the agm, said: "The gentleman that threw something at the stage, I cannot believe he was the only one."