Police step up patrols after second threat to directors of Quinn Industrial Holdings

By Aine McMahon and Q Radio News

Police on both sides of the Fermanagh border are stepping up patrols following a second threat to the directors of Quinn Industrial Holdings.

In a chilling message to the company’s five directors an anonymous letter said it was their “last chance to resign”or face a “permanent solution”.

The letter containing the threat was delivered to the Irish News newspaper in Northern Ireland, and the contents were relayed to QIH directors last night by police.

Here's Irish News journalist Allison Morris:

The anonymous authors of the letter sent to the Irish News warn the QIH directors that if they wanted, "we could have killed Kevin very easily".

Responding in a statement to the alleged death threats contained in the letter, directors of 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."

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

He 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 Police Service of Northern Ireland (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," says the letter, a copy of which has been seen by PA media.

"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 reads.

"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.