IT MIGHT NOT be as iconic a move as the removal of the name from the bank’s current headquarters on St Stephen’s Green last month – and it certainly drew less of a crowd – but today Anglo Irish Bank finally gave up the dream.

The nationalised bank had been building a new international HQ on Dublin’s North Quays – just beside the National Convention Centre – before it was taken into state hands in 2008, when works were halted.

The partially-built shell was owned by developer Liam Carroll and his Zoe Group, but when Carroll’s firm went into liquidation in 2009, the game was up for any hopes of building the new HQ.

It had been speculated that New York bank BNY Mellon was interested in buying the site and finishing it, but that interest came to nothing as the building – a monument to the failure of what was once a star in Ireland’s financial crown – remained idle.

Now, with the bank set to be wound down this year – and with no sign of anyone else taking the site – the cranes have finally been removed from the site, as the vain search for a buyer continues.