QIH welcomed signage removal

 

 

Senior management at Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) have welcomed the removal of alleged “intimidatory signage” located outside Ballyconnell.

It remains unclear who removed the signs as Cavan County Council distanced themselves from their removal. The local authority issued a statement to say that their staff “did not have any role” in the removal of the sign near Ballyconnell, “nor did any third party acting on its behalf”.

The move has been hailed as “a massive step forward” by senior management.

“It was about intimidation of the local community and efforts to obstruct enforcement of the rule of law in this area,” said QIH Chief Executive Liam McCaffrey. “Perhaps removal of the sign will be a sign in its own right that the State will no longer tolerate overt acts of defiance and intimidation against individuals, communities or State organisations.”

The signage was most recently referred to in a threat issued by a masked man, and published by The Irish News earlier this week.

The sinister statement read: 'Yous have not learned the lesson after what happened to Kevin, if we wanted we could have killed him very easily. We want to put on record anybody who removes signs, whether that be council employees or outside contractors, will be targetted. All of this will be brought to a conclusion very shortly'.

 

Solidarity

But Mr McCaffrey says that the development in removing the signs means that “for the first time in over four years” there are no public Facebook pages, posters or notices intimidating or threatening QIH staff or its supporters in the community.

“That’s a massive step forward and a hopeful sign for the future. The only tragedy is that it took such a violent attack on Kevin and persistent and credible threats to the lives of the directors for action to occur.

“What the last six weeks have shown us is the strength and solidarity that comes when decent people and organisations stand together against the forces of intimidation in upholding the rule of law,” states Mr McCaffrey.

He further welcomed the comments by Mr Quinn himself, who as recently as yesterday called for the threats against QIH management to be withdrawn.