Quinn firm attacks ‘could result in fatality’
A RENEWED campaign of violence against Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) could result in death or serious injury, it has been claimed.
The new owners of former Fermanagh billionaire Sean Quinn’s business empire issued the warning after an arson attack destroyed offices and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.
CCTV footage, now being examined by gardai, shows the arsonist breaking in and starting the blaze at the building, which is owned by a senior manager. The attack on the Eco Tyre business in Belturbet, Co Cavan last weekend is regarded by the company as a serious escalation in the campaign.
QIH has voiced concerns that the attack is part of the violence and intimidation directed towards the company since Sean Quinn was ousted in 2011 amid debts totalling €2bn.
Mr Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man, has repeatedly hit out and condemned those behind the attacks on the industrial cement and glass businesses.
A high-level security review is under way to protect staff, management and property after the company said it is “very concerned that a resumption of violence and intimidation may result in serious injury or loss of life”.
The Sunday Independent
Condemned attacks: Sean Quinn
newspaper obtained a dossier that shows the arson attack is the 20th act of violence or hostility on QIH on the Fermanagh-Cavan border in the three years it has been running the business. In total, the group has been on the receiving end of 90 attacks since a share receiver was appointed to take over Quinn’s businesses on behalf of the former Anglo Irish Bank.
A local consortium that included executives who worked for Sean Quinn bought back the business, with US investment, to protect local jobs.
Following a brief return to the business as a “consultant”, Mr Quinn left in 2016 as the result of a dispute.
This year the company reported record profits, but a group claiming to be supporters of Sean Quinn have constantly criticised company executives, saying they are destroying the business.
A log details what QHI claims are “examples of personal harassment of directors/senior management, and damage to property, in addition to ongoing Facebook posting”.
The first incident was logged on January 2105, a month after the local consortium finalised the deal to take over Sean Quinn’s former businesses, and details an arson attack on a parked lorry owned by the company at Derrylin cement works.
Later that year, a petrol can and a box of matches were left beside a windfarm substation and, on the same day, a pig’s head was left at a director’s home.