ROSITA BOLANDtalks to residents of Cavan town, in the week when the local King Midas, Seán Quinn, lost his golden touch
THE DISTINCTIVE green-and-white lorries that carry the Quinn name were rolling through a snowy Cavan county as usual this week, days after it was announced that the Financial Regulator had appointed two joint provisional administrators to the Quinn insurance group.
In Cavan town, some shoppers stop to talk about the man who employs so many people in this region, and who has a house in Ballyconnell. Many do not. Once they hear the words “Seán Quinn” and “Financial Regulator”, many people set their faces into tight expressions and keep on walking.
“I don’t want to get involved in that at all,” one person calls out as he hurries away. His is a typical reaction.
On Town Hall Street, Terry Murphy, a retired butcher, has plenty of opinions. Quinn, he relates, bought him a pint at a wedding Murphy attended 15 years ago in Cavan’s Slieve Russell Hotel, a hotel built and owned by Quinn.
“He’s one of the wealthiest men in Ireland, and I’ll end up paying for his mistakes,” Murphy says bitterly. “My pension has already been cut as a result of all the other stuff going on. It’s the same old story: the rich got richer while the poor got poorer. Rich people don’t like losing money. Quinn was no different to the rest of them. Well, why would the Financial Regulator be called in, unless there was something to investigate? Mind you, he worked hard, I’ll give him that. But he expanded too quick.”
“The taxpayer will have to pay the price again,” states passer-by Karen Delmar. “He’s such a wealthy man, and all his family are so wealthy – why should the Government bail anyone out who has wealth like that? He’ll probably get away with whatever it is they’re looking for.”
One woman does not want to give her name because “I don’t want to be seen to be criticising someone who employs so many people. Besides, we don’t know what will happen yet with the regulators. Seán Quinn seems to be a very wealthy man, and surely he has more than enough money to cover whatever sum seems to be in question with the Government? Calling in the Financial Regulator doesn’t mean he’s insolvent. It just means we have to wait and see what happens next.”
“He got too greedy,” says Vincent Reilly, looking at flowers in Tesco. “This is not good for Cavan. He was a great employer and he built up his business from nothing. He got too greedy, but I think he’ll survive. He’s very diversified and most of his other businesses are going well – as far as we know.”
“I was quite shocked to hear the news,” admits Carmel, a woman shopping for children’s clothes. “I thought he was the last man standing in Ireland. The Quinn businesses employ so many people, and I know lots of couples employed by them. Cavan stands to lose very badly from all this.”
Some people have theories of their own. “I think Seán Quinn put a gun to the head of the Government about things that were going on at the Anglo Irish Bank, and this is their way of backlashing at him,” offers Pauric McArdle, on his way into Eason bookstore. “I have a feeling that’s it. He’s in business, and who knows where the funds are coming from to keep other parts of his business going? I blame him and others like him for the fact that the banks were offering me a huge mortgage during the boom years, but they wouldn’t give me a small business loan.”
“This week is a very, very bad thing for Cavan,” says Gerry Mitchell, who says he is “surprised enough” to hear the news. “If anything happens to any of his businesses, a huge number of jobs would be lost in the country. It’s not good for us here at all.”
One owner of a premises on Main Street expresses strident on-the-record views about Quinn’s wealth and his business dealings, but changes her mind about giving her name between my leaving the counter and reaching the door of her shop.
“People are devastated,” says another person who does not want to give her name. “It would be desperate if the regulator wound down those businesses. You only have to look around you – everywhere you go around here, you see his lorries, you know his name. We all know who he is and how many he employs.”
