Sean Quinn documentary: 'I knew Cyril McGuinness' chief suspect in abduction of Kevin Lunney of Quinn Industrial Holdings, now known as Mannok

And he said that people should ask Mr Lunney why he was abducted and savagely beaten in 2019 by a gang trying to get him to resign from leading the business that Mr Quinn had once owned, Quinn Industrial Holdings, now named Mannok.

Fermanagh man Mr Quinn, once dubbed ‘the richest man in Ireland’, tied his fortune and that of his business empire to the fate of Anglo-Irish Bank, making big bets on the bank’s share price as it tumbled to disaster.

The Irish state was forced to move in and begin the process of taking control of Quinn’s businesses.

What followed were protracted legal battles and a campaign of intimidation and violence, culminating in the horrific attack in 2019 on his former right-hand man, Kevin Lunney, who now runs much of his former business empire.

Mr Lunney was kidnapped from outside his home, savagely beaten and warned to resign from his position running the business. He was then dumped almost naked by the side of an isolated country road.

The main suspect for the crime was Cyril McGuinness, who was known around Derrylin as Dublin Jimmy.

Aged 54, he died from a suspected heart attack when police investigating the attack found him hiding out in a Derbyshire house in November 2019.

The third part of a documentary about Sean Quinn on RTE tonight reported that McGuinness was extremely violent and "an IRA member turned dissident republican and gangster" who had over 50 criminal convictions.

In the first episode of the three part series, Quinn Country by Finepoint Films, Mr Quinn had said it was "beyond comprehension" that people who were his friends, staff and his neighbours would blame his family for being involved in the abduction.

In the third episode, broadcast tonight, Mr Quinn was asked if he knew Cyril McGuinness, who was also known around the border as Dublin Jimmy.

Mr Quinn said that he did.

"Oh I knew him, yeah," Mr Quinn replied.

"Everybody knew Dublin Jimmy. In fact he didn't like being called Dublin Jimmy but that's.... I didn't call him anything… 'How are you doing?' That is as far as I went."

Asked if he ever had asked Cyril McGuinness to take action on his behalf, Mr Quinn replied: "I was never talking to him."

Mr Quinn was then asked if he had anything to do with the attack on Kevin Lunney.

He replied: "Absolutely nothing. Why would I bother my head with Kevin Lunney?"

He then added that people should be asking Kevin Lunney why he was abducted.

"One thing I think people should ask Kevin Lunney [is] why was he attacked?" he said.

"What they [the management of his former company] have done over the last six or seven years and the level of betrayal [of himself] is probably unprecedented in the history of this state. I have nothing good to say about Kevin Lunney."

The documentary then cut to video footage of Mr Quinn making a special presentation to Kevin Lunney some years previously, where he sang his former lieutenant's praises in front of a large room of people.

Mr Quinn told them: "I would like to make a presentation to someone who had a major influence on the success of Quinn Direct over the past ten years... Kevin Lunney always had the respect of his colleagues."

Mr Quinn then presented Kevin Lunney with a crystal vase.

In the closing credits, the documentary said that Sean Quinn owes the Irish taxpayer 2.4bn Euros at least 2bn of which will probably never be recovered.

It said that business damage done in violence in apparent protest against the ousting of Mr Quinn from his business empire cost 10m Euros.

It noted that three men were jailed for between 18 and 30 years for the attack on Kevin Lunney.

And it noted that 2% is now levied on every non-life insurance policy in the Republic of Ireland as a result of the collapse of the Quinn insurance company.

Gardai and PSNI told the filmmakers they were still investigating violence connected to the matters on both sides of the border.

The documentary then recounted that on April 20 this year Sean Quinn's Cavan home was searched by Gardai.

In his final words on the documentary, Mr Quinn said that he believed he would be remembered as someone who brought huge wealth and employment to the border region but who had been on the receiving end of "rough justice."

All three parts of Quinn Country, directed by Trevor Birney for Finepoint Films, can now be seen on the RTE Player.

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