There was a lot of back-slapping and swapping of praise at the recent launch of the Charlie Bird/ George Lee book on the NIB scandal, Breaking the Bank.

The RTE economics correspondent assured the attendance he was great friends with the special correspondent after the two had worked together for the best part of a year - though he didn't know if he had the stamina to work again with the "older reporter", as Mr Bird is often described in the book.

Mr Bird, for his part, told the large crowd of RTE newsroom hacks who turned up that Mr Lee, who did most of the writing, was an "amazing" person and that he would definitely one day write a bestseller.

He also gave a glimpse of what life can be like as the most famous hack in the Montrose newsroom. He recently received an anonymous telephone call from a man who said he had information concerning two senior politicians which was "going to bring down the Government". The caller said he had files to prove his allegations, and the two arranged to meet in a west Dublin car park. Mr Bird raced to the car park, waited, waited and waited. . .

The book, which races along like a good thriller, makes clear the amount of work the duo put into the NIB story. This probably explains the only words of rancour expressed on the night of the book launch. Mr Bird told the assembled hacks that that wellknown senior counsel, Mr Adrian Hardiman, had said that stories such as the NIB revelations were handed to journalists, who then just act as typewriters.

"I am not a typewriter, Mr Hardiman!" Mr Bird declared.