There is tight solidarity with Seán Quinn around Derrylin and Ballyconnell, home to the Quinn Group empire – and to thousands employed directly or indirectly by the group
THERE IS great sympathy and support for Seán Quinn – the man “who did not run away” – in Derrylin in south Fermanagh, and eight miles away, in Ballyconnell in north Cavan.
But there is also a real fear that if current acts of sabotage don’t cease, the 1,150 Quinn Group jobs in this area straddling the Border could be threatened.
Parties opposed to the current Quinn management regime have tried to sabotage some of the company’s operations, and have issued threats to staff.
Several attacks have taken place against Quinn Group property and vehicles since KPMG was appointed as a share receiver by the company’s lenders in mid-April. Quinn lost control of the company at that time and was removed as its chairman.
The home of Paul O’Brien, the group’s chief executive, was the target of an arson attack on Monday night. O’Brien estimates that more than £1 million of damage has been done to Quinn buildings and vehicles, and warned that continued attacks would lead to job losses at the troubled group.
Derrylin and Ballyconnell are where the major part of Quinn’s lost empire was developed. And the word empire is not an overstatement – the Quinn Group cement works, glass plant, roof-tiles, radiator and packaging companies cover acres and acres, a few miles from Derrylin and in Ballyconnell itself. It’s huge – and impressive.
These are two small towns, but you can see and smell the prosperity, all of it hinged on the continuation of Quinn Group, even if it is outside the hands of its former owner and creator.
In some circles there is little sympathy for Quinn because he made such an almighty losing punt with Anglo-Irish Bank, but there is tight solidarity for him in Derrylin and Ballyconnell. Some of that support has degenerated into serious acts of criminality against Quinn Group property and chief executive O’Brien.
Some Seán Quinn supporters were annoyed with comments by O’Brien about the nature of Quinn’s response to the violence. They argued that he was “damned if he did, damned if he didn’t” respond to the attacks. If he condemned the attacks and they stopped, this would indicate he wielded some form of malign influence over the saboteurs, they argued. And if he didn’t respond and the attacks continued, then he would be criticised for making no comment.
Regardless, Quinn himself made yet another statement yesterday unequivocally condemning the sabotage and the attack on the home of O’Brien, and saying he made his views on the various criminal acts emphatically clear in various media over recent weeks.
It isn’t just the 1,150 people directly employed by Quinn Group here who benefit from what Quinn fashioned.
Donal Carlin is a scaffolder who works for a company that contracts for Quinn. “You will find around the north Cavan/south Fermanagh area that Seán Quinn has close to 100 per cent support,” he says.
“People will have sympathy for him, even though he would not like that word himself. He is one of the ones who did not run away. Seán Quinn has always been here through the good times and now the bad times, and he is still here.”
He adds local people don’t want the criminal acts to jeopardise what is left of the empire.
“He made a mistake on the financial side of things and he is paying a mighty price for it. The last thing I think that Seán Quinn would want is that his former employees would pay the price as well.”
Fiona Corrigan’s husband, Ciarán, also works for a contractor who works for the Quinn Group. She was spending money in local Derrylin stores yesterday with her seven-year-old daughter Katie.
If anything happened to Quinn Group, everybody would suffer, she said, “the creche up the road used by Quinn Group employees . . . the pupils from the local school who eventually hope to get jobs with Quinn . . . the new Spar, the pharmacy, the hardware shop . . . ”
She, too, affirms her support. “Seán Quinn has given the people of Fermanagh and Cavan a great start in life, and he started from nothing himself. People have a lot of respect for him. He never forgot where he came from.”
She adds that the vast majority of people oppose the violence – including Quinn himself.
Sam Brannigan, who runs Blake’s Fine Wines in Derrylin, says nobody seems to know who is carrying out the attacks.
“People are really worried because it is doing a lot of damage, especially when people are so concerned with all the talk of possible relocation of parts of the business,” he says. “If Quinn was pulled from here, ‘devastating’ doesn’t even cover what it would mean for the area.”
