Ajai Chopra has a wry sense of humour. The former IMF senior official recalled during the Oxford address that after the bank stress tests were carried out in March 2011, and the results were known, his team were weary and had been working very hard.

To mark April Fool's Day, he had wanted to send around an email to all those on his team, claiming that U2 wanted to run a concert calling for senior bondholders to be burned.

Expand Close To mark April Fool’s Day, Chopra had wanted to send around an email to all those on his team, claiming that U2 wanted to run a concert calling for senior bondholders to be burned / Facebook

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Whatsapp To mark April Fool’s Day, Chopra had wanted to send around an email to all those on his team, claiming that U2 wanted to run a concert calling for senior bondholders to be burned

And that the IMF staff had been invited.

But despite his attempt at fun, advisers suggested that it might not have been the wisest thing to do.

"The Irish stress tests results were released March 31," he said.

"Next day is April 1. Our team had been working non-stop, very, very hard.

"[It was] April Fool's Day, and I wanted to send around an email to the team saying that U2 was going to hold a 'burn the senior bondholders' concert in Dublin and that we had all been invited. I was told that would be a very, very bad idea and that ended there."

Irish Independent