Quinn directors get ‘last warning’ death threats

Charlie Flanagan, the justice minister, has described as “most chilling and sinister” the revelation that the directors of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) have been sent a second death threat in the form of a “last warning”.

Mr Flanagan, who is expected to raise the issue when he meets Garda Commissioner Drew Harris today, said anyone who comes forward with information that could assist gardaí or the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in their investigation of the targeting of QIH property and staff would be protected.

Mr Flanagan told RTÉ News that the investigation was a “classic case” of cross-border co-operation between An Garda Síochána and the PSNI.

The latest death threat to directors was in the form of a letter delivered to The Irish News newspaper in Northern Ireland, the contents of which were relayed to QIH directors by police on Monday night.

It also threatened Cavan County Council staff or other contractors who remove posters erected as part of the campaign of intimidation against the directors.

It warned that they will be targeted if they remove the posters.

In response, QIH said: “Regrettably, continuing threats are no surprise to QIH. It is just proof positive that this issue will not be resolved until the paymaster behind it is brought to justice and law and order is restored to this peace-loving community.”

One QIH director, John McCartin, told RTÉ that the most recent death threat shows that the “faction” behind it is “emboldened and are undeterred from their specific agenda.”

Last month, Kevin Lunney, a director of the building products manufacturer, was kidnapped and badly beaten after being abducted from outside his home in Co Fermanagh.

The anonymous authors of the letter warned the other directors that, if they had wanted to, “we could have killed Kevin very easily”.

Mr Lunney received knife wounds to his face and neck, and had one of his legs broken in two places in a sustained attack before being dumped by a roadside across the border in Cornafean, Co Cavan.

The PSNI said Mr Lunney sustained severe and life-changing injuries.

The directors were told in the letter they had not learned their lessons after what happened to Mr Lunney.

“This is your last warning to resign to the directors of QIH; obviously you haven’t learned your lesson after what happened to Kevin,” the letter, seen by PA media, says.

“Directors of QIH were given a mandate to hold the company in safe hands for the Quinn family until a position was put in place to buy it back. The local community won’t stand by any longer and see it continue in its current projectory (sic),” it says.

“The Quinn family that employed hundreds of people were stabbed in the back. We have the capability and the manpower to see this through until the end and achieve a permanent solution.”

The five directors are Kevin Lunney, Tony Lunney, Liam McCaffrey, Dara O’Reilly, and John McCartin.

There have been around 70 incidents throughout a five-year campaign of violence and intimidation directed at the management that has been running QIH since the fall of Sean Quinn, who was once Ireland’s richest man.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesperson Jim O’Callaghan said the campaign of violence and threats against the directors “should not be tolerated”.

“It is important now for both the gardaí and the PSNI to work together to bring those behind these threats, on members of Quinn Industrial Holdings, into custody,” he said.

“These attacks and threats must not and should not be tolerated, and I strongly urge anyone who may be protecting these thugs to come forward with information.”