After the Global Financial Crisis, while the banks were licking their wounds, a new type of lender appeared in Ireland.  They came from New York and London, with deep pockets and a big appetite for risk. They were attached to the private equity funds that were swarming across the country.  The new lenders started out as a way for private equity funds to elbow the banks out of deals. Instead of relying on banks to finance deals, the private equity funds established their own quasi-bank funds to do the lending.  The direct lenders, as they’re known, gather up money from…