It was at the time the largest aircraft leasing company in the world. Its collapse was an international event and one of the biggest Irish business failures of modern times. The story of its decline and fall is told by Chris Brown, a senior executive, in the form of a diary which he kept at the time. He ascribes much of the blame for the collapse of GPA to its charismatic founder, the late Dr Tony Ryan whose autocratic management style brooked no opposition. But out of the ashes of the GPA debacle arose another one of Ryan' s businesses: from small beginnings Ryanair has grown to be the largest airline in Europe less than twenty years later.