Client Confidential ― Spooks, Secrets and Counter-espionage in Celtic-tiger Ireland

Seán Hartnett left the British army in 2005 after years of exemplary service, operating as a covert surveillance technician at JCU-NI, the top-secret counter-terrorism unit in Northern Ireland. His experiences were the makings of the bestselling Charlie One, the book the British Ministry of Defence tried to ban. But this wasn’t the end of Hartnett’s career in counter espionage. After operations in South Africa, Australia, and London, he arrived home to Ireland just as the Celtic Tiger was about to implode. 

Client Confidential is a shocking expose of the clandestine activities that foreshadowed the worst financial crash in the history of the Irish state. Many of the country’s leading financial institutions and business figures began to see the cracks in the economy. Hartnett was called in to protect and gather information—to carry out covert and counter surveillance for blue chip companies, semi-state bodies, national sporting associations and convicted criminals. Hartnett lifts the lid on the worst excesses of the Celtic Tiger and, the dark secrets never meant to see the light of day, are finally exposed.

Seán Hartnett was born in Cork in 1975 and is married with two step-children. He joined the British Army in 1998 and served for almost seven years before moving first to South Africa, then Australia and finally returning to Ireland just as the Celtic Tiger was collapsing. He has worked as a security consultant for major companies and on government projects worldwide. He has also worked in the area of commercial espionage and counter espionage. He is a fanatical rugby fan and is a sucker for a slice of good Tiramisu.