Tycoons: King without a throne

He had lost his empire, but Seán Quinn was desperate to reclaim it following his epic fall. This profile analysed the man, the money and the myth

Seán Quinn arriving at the Four Courts for the second day of a High Court action in the spring of 2012 Pic: Collins

Date of publication: April 10, 2016

It’s now five years to the week since Seán Quinn lost control of his sprawling manufacturing empire. Five years since senior IBRC executives beckoned Quinn from Cavan to Dublin, while secretly dispatching a battalion of lawyers, accountants and receivers in the other direction.

His eponymous insurance business had been commandeered by the state the year before. Now, he was losing the rest of the wider Quinn Group ...