During the 1970s, the country’s leaders, business and political, were faced with a series of crises. On the economic front, governments struggled as a big wealth transfer to oil producers took place. Deficits soared. The national debt grew.It is an ill wind that blows no good. The Irish Government was forced to borrow increasing amounts overseas. The United States was faced with a surge in inflation as it dealt with the consequences of the Vietnam war. US president Jimmy Carter appointed Paul Volcker chairman of the Federal Reserve, America’s top central banker.Volcker was a hawk. He squeezed the money supply. The US currency surged in value – and with it the cost of Irish debt, much of which was in dollars.This, in turn, led over time to the emergence of a market in Irish gilts in which Davy was increasingly well placed to participate. By now, a group of skilled experts were moving up the ranks at Davy. The founding fathers, James and Eugene, had adopted more of a formal presence. Brian, the son of James, and Joseph, son of Eugene, played a more central part. At the same time, the economic consultancy Davy Kelleher McCarthy (DKM) was established as a partnership between the firm and the consultancy’s partners. Robbie Kelleher was a key player, having starred in All-Ireland football finals during the 1970s heyday of the Dublin team under Kevin Heffernan. A rival from the Meath team recalls that Kelleher had few equals as a defender when it came to guarding his patch on the field.As one firm insider recalls, “DKM brought a new dimension. We were well placed as the government bond side was developed.”Colm McCarthy, Brian Davy and Robbie Kelleher pictured at the launch of new economic consulstancy firm Davy Kelleher McCarthy (DKM), in March 1981, Irish Times The consultancy’s reports were highly critical of the failures of the Irish government to control spending. (DKM also helped give birth to a group who gathered in Doheny & Nesbitt’s pub to sound off on the state of the nation.)Selling the Irish story abroad was key to the fast-growing institutional investment business. Brian Davy, Kyran McLaughlin, Tony Garry and Robbie Kelleher led groups abroad that included Irish bank chief executives and CFOs as well as people such as Howard Kilroy, personable right-hand man to Michael Smurfit.Davy faced some competition from other brokers, led by Goodbody and a new firm, Riada. Before long, NCB emerged, the result of an acquisition of an existing stockbroker Dillon & Waldron.Kelleher had worked for Irish Life, Davy’s biggest institutional client. Having ended up as its top bond dealer, he sought a change. He felt unsuited to the role. “I was more contemplative,” he says. He helped to woo Colm McCarthy across to DKM from the Central Bank. Another key player was Brendan Dowling. These characters would play a central role over the coming decades.“In the 1970s, the institutional business was dominated by Irish clients. The next part was to build a base beyond Irish clients. The process was led by Tony Garry, a salesman on the bond desk. It was a tough sell. The economy was banjaxed,” Kelleher recalls.The breakthrough came in 1983/84 when DWS, the investment arm of Deutsche Bank, took a big position in Irish bonds. Other German players followed, and then the Americans.Next came the “Big Bang” reform of the London Stock Exchange which opened up companies to takeover. Citibank, the US institution, took a majority stake in J & E Davy. “They were very much hands-off owners,” Kelleher recalls. This left Davy management in pole position, decision-wise.The Davy trio of Peter Keane, Joseph Davy and Dermot Walsh attend the official opening of the new Davy offices at Royal Hibernian Way on Dawson Street, April 1988 The “Big Bang” effect also had huge implications: Minimum commission rates were scrapped and the 18 Irish stockbrokers had to reinvent themselves, offering a wider range of services. In 1986, Kerry Co-op was floated on the market, helping to trigger a wave of flotations. Irish companies were expanding overseas while inward FDI was also about to take off.“New companies such as Kerry, Avonmore and Waterford began to expand overseas. In the 80s and 90s, the stockbrokers were successful in facilitating the development of Irish companies.”The stockbrokers were in the vanguard – Kelleher contrasts this position with the state of affairs today when wealth management accounts for the bulk of the profits earned by the firm.He looks back with some nostalgia on a time when firms like Davy played a central part in the rise to global prominence of Irish public limited companies: “Stockbrokers were very successful in facilitating large Irish companies to develop.”The once drab financial pages made compelling reading during this time. Homegrown firms such as CRH and Jefferson Smurfit, in particular, began an extraordinary transformation by acquisition outside Ireland. Business leaders travelled by helicopter and enthusiastic shareholders thronged well-attended agms. The atmosphere was buoyant.They helped to sell the Irish story, playing their part in a foreign investment bonanza that kicked off with the arrival of Intel Corp at the end of the 1980s. When Davy moved into its new HQ on the site of the old Hibernian hotel in 1988, the business was unrecognisable, representing the new Ireland.