FRANK MOCKLER, a farmer from Thurles in Co Tipperary, cheerfully suggested to the agm that the "top brass" in AIB should be welded to wind turbines to stand as "rotating monuments to our national greed".

When children ask what became of our wealth, we can say, “the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind”, he said.

Shareholders were gleeful at the thought, but Mr Mockler was “very annoyed” at his core. This was his first agm, he said later, having driven 100 miles with his friend and fellow shareholder, Denis Walsh, to attend the event.

He said he had been struck by the turbine idea after watching a wind farm operate near his home.

Mr Mockler has lost more than €100,000 on his AIB investment. While not “depending” on the money, he had hoped to pass it on to his family, he said.

His friend, Mr Walsh, has lost more heavily, reckoning he and his mother are €3 million poorer as a result of the decimation in AIB shares. A concrete supplier, he says he is being hit from “both sides” at the moment, with his customers unable to pay their bills as a bank funding dries up.

“I’m very disappointed,” he said, recalling rising at 2 or 3am each morning to prepare concrete for sale, carrying on the business from his mother.

“We’d always looked on AIB shares as cash in your hand,” he said.

Betty Hegarty, from Howth in Co Dublin, was in philosophical mood as the agm closed, wondering what it was that made 99 per cent of shareholders vote in favour of the recapitalisation earlier in the day.

“I ask myself why,” she said, suggesting that perhaps fear of the future or fear of disturbing the status quo had been the motivation.

This was her first AIB agm.

She said she was “interested” to see what would happen, having taken charge of her finances after becoming a widow within the past year and a half. She also recently attended her first Bank of Ireland agm.

Like all shareholders in the banks, Ms Hegarty has lost money but, happily, she can rely upon a good pension from her late husband.

She said she gained satisfaction from the event, which was “well-handled”.

She suggested that “we could all get ourselves into that sort of mess”.

“It was such an amazing time. Anything was possible,” she said. “The human condition is still in evolutionary process.”

Jim O'Riordancaused much mirth at the agm when he observed that his wife had always looked upon her AIB shareholding as her "running-away money".

“Now she has lost everything and the two of us are very disappointed about that,” he told the gathering.

While he had always thought bankers were “cautious” and “boring”, he now accused them of acting like “professional poker players” and “boy racers”.

“I just feel very aggrieved,” said Mr O’Riordan later, remarking that when you reach “a certain age in your 50s” and you realise your mortgage isn’t paid, you suddenly become interested.

“It would’ve paid the mortgage,” he said of the lost investment, “but I don’t consider myself a hardship case”.

More sympathy should go to elderly people who were reliant on dividends, he added.

Living in affluent the south Dublin suburb of Monkstown, Mr O’Riordan helps run a hostel for alcoholic homeless people and an associated recycling business. He said his home has “earned” more than he has over many of the past 22 years by gaining value.

"But it hadn't earnedit," he added. "People who were making money weren't earningit."