Peter Quinn: Next generation will be back in business

Despite his nephew being in prison and his own son being a fugitive from justice here, Peter Quinn has said the next generation of his family will “be back in business and will succeed”.

The former GAA president made the remarks in an interview in which he also denied he and his brother Seán Quinn were divided over their respective sons’ current status.

While Seán Quinn’s son Seán Quinn Jr remains in Mountjoy prison, Peter Quinn’s son Peter Darragh Quinn is a free man living in the North even though both were sentenced to jail last month for contempt of court.

Peter Quinn Sr told BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence programme: “There’s one thing about the Quinns — we have never split on any issue and we won’t split on this issue. There has never been a family dispute in our generation of any significance and there won’t be. Sure, Peter’s north of the border, Seán’s in jail — they both made the decision.”

He said Seán Quinn Jr was asked by his father if he was going to go to jail and he said he would if that was what was in the best interests of the group.

“Peter was asked if he would go to jail, he said he didn’t see any reason why he should go to jail,” he said.

He added that Peter Darragh Quinn wanted to purge his contempt and had contacted Anglo Irish Bank twice to ask for its help as he could not purge it on his own, but said Anglo had refused to respond to him.

During the interview, the former GAA president said the next generation of the Quinn family would be “back in business” adding that: “They may not be all over Europe but they’ll be back in business and they’ll succeed because they have the ability to run a business.”

He criticised the media and politicians and said: “The whole lot of them should be put in a boat some place, shipped off to a point where the plug will come down and drop them into the middle of the Atlantic.”

Meanwhile, following Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly’s praise for those who took part in a rally of support for the Quinn family just over a week ago, fellow MEP Mairead McGuinness has become the latest party colleague to criticise such comments.

“All elected representatives have got to be very clear, even about giving a perception that they do other than stand by the law of this land (which) applies, in my view, to everybody, rich or poor, young or old,” she told RTÉ.