Quinn: Grit and Greed on the Border

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I finished school at fifteen so writing books isn’t something I’m used to. It is important that my side of the story is told. There’s a lot of local people who wonder what happened and they have been reading a certain narrative of events for years and it is not the real story, so I’m happy to have put that out there.”

While Seán Quinn publicly apologised to the Sunday Independent journalist Maeve Sheehan for his treatment of her during an interview in advance of his book launch, during Thursday night’s event his solicitor Mr McGettigan accused Ms Sheehan of trying to make the book about herself. He made the remark after a swipe at journalists in general. Quinn adds, ruefully, that “now the scene was set for our destruction, as there is no argument as to what happened subsequently”. Indeed not.The chief archaeologist at the time, Peter Danaher, agreed and his staff supervised as Quinn had the tomb excavated, moved and reconstructed, under the supervision of archaeologist John Channing, at the Slieve Russell Hotel. Indeed, Mr Danahar said the move was ‘a reasonably good result’. He admitted to The Anglo-Celt that he would have preferred it not be moved at all, ‘but in the circumstances, it is in as good a place as any’. Recently I’ve been getting both persecuted by people advising me and criticising me, but it has been a joyful couple of weeks. We’re getting a lot of encouragement and support from people who are very annoyed about what was done me. I’m very relieved to have signed off on the book after spending a year and a half on it. He added: “They took all our money and then took businesses off us that weren’t part of the group - assets in India, Russia and Ukraine.” And his family will not. People would be conscious of what others lost. He created jobs but people worked very hard for him,” said the local, again speaking on condition of anonymity.

Many years later, the same locals who had protested its movement at the time would say that Sean Quinn’s downfall was all because he’d tampered with that fairy fort.He then began selling it to local builders and, after making some money, expanded into other sectors.

Fr O’Reilly made national headlines when he condemned the “paymaster or paymasters” responsible for the kidnapping and torture of Mannok director and former Quinn confidant Kevin Lunney. After several decades at the centre of Irish business, Sean Quinn has provided a personal insight into his life with his new memoir ‘In My Own Words’. Speaking to The Anglo-Celt this week ahead of his book launch, the former billionaire says that he believes it is something he owes to his family, staff, community, and loyal supporters who stood by him during challenging times. Asked if he has any regrets over his time in business, Sean isn’t hesitant to outline things he would do differently if he had the chance to do it again. This culminated in the horrific abduction of the chief operating officer of Quinn Industrial Holdings Kevin Lunney in 2019 who was left with life-changing injuries.Also present on Thursday night were Mr Quinn’s brother Peter, the former GAA president, and former presidential candidate Seán Gallagher, but no other political figures were spotted. He is now gambling that his new book will tell his story and not remind the public of how they ended up paying his debts. Recalling the period both before and after the kidnapping of Kevin Lunney, Fr O’Reilly said the directors of Quinn’s former companies endured years of “horrendous intimidation, abuse, threats, physical assaults and orchestrated vilification on local social media platforms”. Seán Quinn junior, who told the crowd that it was “a very emotional night for my father”, thanked those who had supported him for the past 15 years. He himself found the book difficult to read, he said, adding that the biggest disappointment for him over recent turbulent years was “being double-crossed by people you considered friends”. Those present seemed keen to share their admiration for the man who was once Ireland’s richest citizen - until he lost his business after multi-billion euro losses on a gamble on contracts for difference - a type of investment on shares - in the former Anglo Irish Bank.