The key word in the sentence is “ironically,” which signals you to look for a conflict between the expected reaction and the actual one. Logically, executives who bring bankruptcy to the coal fields should be condemned, but since you’re looking for irony—the opposite of what you’d expect—the idea that they are celebrated fits the sentence, as does their being cherished by their contemporaries as “industrial heroes” even though they’ve brought ruin to the coal fields. A is the answer.