AIB Investors OK Bailout, Pelt Leaders With Eggs

Keogh said he has lost about nine-tenths of his investment in AIB and all his dividend income. He contrasted that with the massive salaries and retirement packages of AIB's disgraced leaders, at least three of whom are stepping down in July, including Gleeson and Sheehy.

"If we didn't live in a tolerant society, the chairman and the rest of the board would be hanging by their necks with piano wire out on the road," Keogh said to cheers from onlookers.

Gleeson apologized for the bank's loose lending in recent years to construction firms, property developers and land speculators. AIB this week raised its estimated losses this year from defaulting loans to euro4.3 billion, higher than its previous worst-case scenario outlined just two months ago.

"Could we have done better? Absolutely, we could have done a lot better," Gleeson told shareholders, who accused the board of directors of negligence and incompetence in speech after speech.

Allied Irish shares slumped 20 percent to euro0.80 in afternoon trade on the Irish Stock Exchange, where AIB spent many years as the top-valued company. But since mid-2008 the stock has plummeted 95 percent.