Really, i should try harder before asking for help, but thanks for a
place to air my woes!

The solution/problem was transactions.
With AutoCommit=true ADODB was kindly calling ibase_commit after
issuing each query. This doesnt affect (nested) "select" queries, but
the moment an "update/delete/insert" was issued all "open" cursors are
(not surprisingly!) lost.

Handling transactions properly it all works properly!

Thanks again for being a shoulder to cry on.

Yours,
Ian