On St Patrick’s weekend, 2018, farmers gathered at the mart in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan for a busy livestock sale. Cattle and sheep changed hands, money was paid to the mart’s cashiers and tractors and jeeps towing trailers full of animals left the eye-catching, red-painted premises at the centre of the town. The farmers did not know they were not to return. The following week, sales were cancelled. On April 9, 2018, Edward Paul Nugent Ltd, the firm running sales at the mart and a property auctioneering business in the adjoining office, went into liquidation. While it owed an estimated €1.2…