‘I WAS F**KED OVER’

Seán Quinn is taking his fight to reclaim his legacy into the digital age, some 15 years after the collapse of his business empire left him embroiled in a bitter web of court battles, financial disputes and recriminations.

“I was f**ked over,” the former Fermanagh billionaire told the Celt, making clear he has no intention of letting his version of events go unheard.

A new website, www.seanquinnofficial.ie, and an accompanying podcast series, ‘The Quinn Files: Fall of an Empire’, due to launch later this month, represent his most concerted effort yet to put his account of the dramatic collapse directly before the public.

Now a pensioner, Mr Quinn says he has little left to lose.

“I’ll turn 80 in a few weeks’ time. I think there’s an onus on me to let the public know [what happened].”

For Quinn, this is not simply about looking back. It is about ensuring that when the arguments, court cases and headlines of the past 15 years are revisited, his voice is still there - and heard.

“I’ve been through it all, with the media, the courts, Anglo [Irish Bank] , the government. It’s all come on top of me the last 15 years. I’m now entering the final years of my life, and I feel very strongly that I put the true story on record.”

There was a time when the Quinn name was synonymous with extraordinary entrepreneurial success. From his base in Derrylin and Ballyconnell, Mr Quinn built an empire spanning glass, construction, hotels, insurance and property. What began as a local enterprise grew into an international group employing thousands and generating enormous wealth.

Then the financial crisis struck.

By his own admission, Quinn’s exposure to Anglo Irish Bank became a defining feature of the collapse of his fortune. The subsequent battle over his assets, liabilities and business interests became one of the most bitter and complicated financial sagas in modern Irish legal history.

For Quinn, however, the conventional narrative leaves out what he believes matters most: that he was prepared, and believes he was capable, of repaying every cent owed of the billions of euro at the centre of the dispute.

His remarks come as parts of the former Quinn empire continue to change hands.

Last week, QIPG Refinance Limited, a Belfast-based company established as part of the State’s recovery operation, was formally dissolved following a final $9.4M distribution to IBRC Investment Recovery Limited. The funds came from book debts owed by Demesne Investments Limited, a former Quinn Group company that became central to the State’s efforts to take control of the international property portfolio.

The Quinn family’s international property portfolio, once valued at around €500M, included office buildings, shopping centres and logistics facilities, among them Moscow’s Kutuzoff Tower.

In 2019, Mr Quinn’s five children consented to judgments totalling €440M, with enforcement stayed on condition that they co-operated with efforts to secure the assets for the State.

Elsewhere, parts of the former empire have taken on new identities.

Quinn Insurance, acquired by Liberty Mutual in 2011 after entering administration and later rebranded as RedClick Insurance, was acquired by Zurich Insurance this year.

The former Quinn Insurance headquarters in Enniskillen is being transformed into flexible workspace by the International Workplace Group, while the Cavan offices are occupied by Lakeland Dairies and, more recently, the HSE.

In June 2025, IBRC sold a shopping centre and office development in Kyiv formerly owned by Quinn. The Slieve Russell Hotel, a stone’s throw from his family home at Cranaghan, was sold in October 2024 to the Australian-based Brady Group for approximately €30M.

And Mannok, encompassing construction elements that once belonged to Quinn Group, was acquired in May by Çimsa, a subsidiary of Turkish global materials company Sabancı Holding.

Quinn insists he was willing to repay both the loans he has always described as “illegal” and those he regards as legitimate.

“I was offering them back the whole €2.8 billion. So whatever they have recovered, they have recovered,” he says of the State’s asset recovery operation.

“But they wouldn’t take it because he wanted to blame me for the cover-up,” he alleges.

That allegation - and what happened to his proposal - form a central plank of the new podcast, in which Quinn claims bankers understood that his proposal could work.

Asked if the podcast is an attempt to clear his name, Mr Quinn says the motivation goes deeper.

“I want people to know that is what happened to me.”

And he has a particular audience in mind.

“Correct. For my grandkids, and great-grandkids as well. For everyone to know. I was f**ked over by people against me.”

Few lines capture Mr Quinn’s continuing sense of grievance more starkly.

“There have been an awful lot of people who have been supporters of Seán Quinn. I know there has been an awful lot more against him,” he says. “Staying silent on it is not the answer either.”

To anyone who doubts his claims, Mr Quinn says they should examine the material themselves.

He says he provided gardaí with information about alleged criminality and names of potential witnesses. Over two days, he says, they spoke to him at his home near Ballyconnell, leaving with list of eight names to speak to and details of how to obtain six more.

“Where is my justice?” he asks.

The collapse of the Quinn empire is often inextricably linked to darker events that followed, including scrutiny surrounding the abduction and assault of former Quinn Group executive Kevin Lunney.

Quinn has consistently rejected allegations of criminal involvement.

“Of course none of that is true, and there has never been any evidence to support any of it.”

But he says he has evidence supporting his own claims.

“I had it in the book, I had it in the documentary I did in January of this year and nobody has disputed any of my evidence, and they won’t either. Only this time, in the podcast, I’ve got a bit more detail, more names of individuals.”

He says he wants his version preserved, seeing future advances in AI and digital search as tools that could make his account permanently accessible for generations to come.

“This is no big scene for me, I’m not trying to be some sort of maverick or anything doing it. But in years to come it won’t be Seán Quinn sitting and arguing about whether this should have happened or that should have happened, the other should have happened,” he says.

“What I’m saying here and now, with 100% clarity, there was a major cover-up from government right down, started off by the government, to cover up of Quinn fraud.”