Sir, – Fintan O’Toole is on the money, if you forgive the pun, once again (“Support for shameless Quinn is misplaced”, Opinion, July 31st).
The sight of more than 5,000 deluded Irish citizens, including a high-profile priest and figures from the sporting world, marching to show some sort of spurious solidarity for a gambler who played perhaps the largest role in the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank, which in turn led to the events that precipitated the mad bank guarantee, was sickening, even for someone long accustomed to the sight of the Irish making a spectacle of themselves.
As O’Toole points out, it’s a fact that no less than €455 million was borrowed by Quinn from Anglo to expand his property portfolio using property as collateral for his gambling. The economy went into freefall. Quinn can’t pay his debts and so, as Anglo is now State- owned, the bill is ours.
Not to forget the cherry on this rancid cake of the insurance levy imposed on every citizen taking out insurance to cover another part of Quinn’s failed business empire.
This sorry spectacle only cemented a couple of long-held convictions; one being that capitalism is easy street provided you’re on the right side of it; and the other that the Irish, as a nation, remain a peasant race, curiously, instantly willing to support shady characters (provided they’re “one of our own”) and never learning anything from the turmoil of the 90 years since our “Independence”. – Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN,
Stillorgan Road,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
A chara, – It is deeply disturbing to see a line of celebrities heading up a phalanx of hundreds of the plain people of Ireland in rejection of a contempt of court order and sentence made against members of the Quinn family.
There is, however, a historical meaning to it all. This is the Irish people marching for their chieftain. It is a form of feudalism that Irish people seem to love. They love to be ruled, rather than take responsibility for the republic that was handed to them by courageous men and women in the early 20th century.
Well they ought to be wary and remember why we needed a republic. Irish chieftains all too often ended up doing deals with English feudal lords in Anglo-Irish arrangements that never did the plain people any good.
We have a republic, we have a system of justice, we have courts. We should stand by our courts like honourable and equal citizens. Why should we stand by any chieftains? Haven’t we enough communities electing cute-hoor politicians to rule them? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole writes (Opinion, July 31st) that the presence of Fr Brian D’Arcy at a recent rally in support of Sean Quinn and his family means that the Catholic Church is part of “a formidable, if unofficial nexus . . . giving Quinn comfort”.
If Mr O’Toole or any journalist, acting in a purely personal capacity, had been present, would anyone have been permitted to use your newspaper to say that the press were doing likewise? I think not! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I would like to congratulate Fintan O’Toole on his article (Opinion, July 31st) about the support the Quinn family got in Cavan last Sunday. Hopefully people will see from his article exactly what the Quinn family are like. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Many will be at one with the thousands who came out to support Seán Quinn in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, on Sunday.
Mr Quinn is not to be compared with the three-card trick financial “experts” who, by sleight of hand, produced zombie profits for their employers and were rewarded with huge salaries and massive bonuses without ever providing employment to thousands of people in deprived rural areas.
Mr Quinn did this over a long period of years starting from the most modest of beginnings. Having made one foolish error in relation to his dealings with Anglo Irish Bank, Mr Quinn still had a profitable range of enterprises from which he was ready, willing and able to repay, over time, the losses on his gamble with Anglo Irish if his enterprises were allowed to remain in his hands. The whole matter was, however,handled in a manner which will leave everyone at a loss. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – As a supporter of Gaelic games I was disappointed to see several GAA personalities march in support of the Quinn family. The arrogance of the Quinn family is breathtaking. They have run up huge gambling debts, they are obstructing the courts and are attempting to hide assets abroad to avoid repayments. If the Quinns do not pay their debts then the Irish public will be forced to pick up the tab.
There was a time when Fianna Fáil, the Catholic Church and the GAA were the dominant social forces in Ireland. Due to the obnoxious and morally corrupt behaviour of members of Fianna Fáil and the Catholic Church, both those organisations went into decline. The GAA will go the same way unless its leaders set a higher standard of ethics for members.
There are many people in the GAA trying to build a more progressive and transparent organisation but are being held back by the type of “personalities” who were marching in support of the Quinns. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Ann Marie Hourihane thinks the Quinns are now in fashion and that they “are of and from ordinary rural Ireland” (Opinion, July 30th.) They are from rural Ireland alright – the keep-it-in-the-family-rural-Ireland. IBRC is from the give-it back-to-the-people-Ireland. For all our sakes let’s hope the IBRC view prevails. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – We Irish like to think of ourselves as a modern, sophisticated and progressive people. But, the sad fact is, we have hardly evolved from the peasant mentality of our forebears.
The sight of 5,000 “ordinary” people marching in support of a multimillionaire, free market capitalist is the modern equivalent of a 19th-century peasant doffing his cap to the local lord. – Yours, etc,
SEAN MOORE,
Millmount Terrace,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.