There’s been plenty of high profile business collapses in the last 25 years, yet nothing like the Quinns in terms of reaction.
Sections of the local population bear some responsibility for the uptick in violence. That was threats of violence and nastiness that came well before Kevin Lunney et al.
The reason Dukes said that is because he was subject to real threats of violence and would have been given protection. Indeed many ordinary workers who were carrying out their jobs on the Quinn company and personal legal matters were subject to similar threats.
NAMA sold things “cheaply” because it was set up with a view to make it “profitable” and disentangle the mess the State had got in. That was political optics.
Ireland is not particularly corrupt by international standards. I’d also say the idea that the media don’t cover it is gas. The reason why do nothing politicians like Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Mick Wallace, Catherine Murphy, Roisin Sherlock and others keep their seats is because they are contrarians who moan about Ireland and call it a corrupt kip every second sentence.
I’d say if you were deeply involved with the Quinn saga over the best part of the decade and saw repeated criminality and the associated supportive to neutral mood-music from the locals about it you’d find it very very difficult not to be cynical and/or sneery about the whole affair.
That might upset some of the Cavan heads who don’t like being called out on it but a bit of introspection might be more suited.
Is it possible that those who took the bet off you knew you (are you familiar to them?) and so when processing the bet there could be monitoring capabilities so they’d enter the bet into the system under your nickname they have for you? So then when you went down to the second shop nearby and they went for processing the bet, provided they know your nickname there too and that you’re monitored, the bet would immediately be flagged that you’ve reached your limit and so you were knocked back?
Either that or shop A rang some of the shops nearby and said keep an eye on the Brad Pitt lookalike backing Snoozy Lucy in the 4.10.
Dukes was tasked with realising as much as he could from the ashes of the fire. He met obstructions from the Quinns at every hands turn (the majority of which were totally underhanded). Quinn then became intransigent and began to publicly play the “poor us” card. Dukes was pissed off with the whole lot of them. Granted his supercilious, sneery attitude didn’t endear him to anybody but he’s not seeking election anytime soon. One reversal at the ballot box was as much as he could take.
It now appears that Quinn’s success at 25/45 for 50p per game went somewhat to his head. Confident in his ability to read faces and body-language he decided to broaden his horizons and he erroneously opted for a few rounds of the dreaded Acey/Deucy with a few lads he wasn’t that familiar with.
These lads turned out not to be experts at it either and engaged heavily in loss-chasing. We all know how that invariably goes.
I’ve just completed the show and it’s clear that whatever measly salary Dukes got for that job was not worth it. Particularly as he was likely on an easy street pension. Why would someone have been bothered dealing with the turd that was IBRC? He might have originally thought it was an easy NED but he stuck around for years out of some bizarre sense of loyalty (I can only guess).
He is getting abuse for a comment that was 100% correct. Lots of locals now disassociating themselves from the violence that tipped it over the edge but nobody had an issue when there was intimidation designed to “keep” the company local. Nobody cared when it was some businessman from outside the area, or a Judge or even a junior solicitor or accountant just doing their jobs….
