Kevin Lunney: Cavan priest calls attack a 'modern crucifixion'

A priest has said there is an "obvious cancer of evil in our midst" after an attack on a Fermanagh businessman.

Fr Oliver O'Reilly told churchgoers in Ballyconnell, County Cavan, that the evil needed to be "exorcised before someone is murdered".

Kevin Lunney, a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings, was driving from work to his home in Kinawley when he was abducted on 17 September.

Fr O'Reilly's condemnation of the assault received loud applause.

He described it as a "modern crucifixion carried out by a mafia-style group".

Mr Lunney was found 22 miles (35km) away beside a road in County Cavan.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Mr Lunney sustained severe and life-changing injuries.

Fr O'Reilly said the "long reign of terror" now threatened the lives and livelihoods of everybody living in the border areas of Fermanagh and Cavan.

He said there was a "false narrative" being pushed by a "small group of people in our midst" about the directors of Quinn Industrial Holding.

Fr O'Reilly apologised for being "too complacent" in recent years to Mr Lunney, his family and Quinn management.

"I now believe there has been a Mafia-style group with its own Godfather operating in our region for some time behind the scenes," he said.

"They have decided to ratchet up the intimidation. The Rubicon has now been crossed by this most recent barbaric assault."

Fr O'Reilly added that no one was above the law.

The vast majority of peace-loving, law-abiding people in the area were being "held to ransom by a few unscrupulous individuals who are hugely dangerous", said Fr O'Reilly.

"This depraved act and scandalous attack on an innocent and powerless man by hired savage thugs," he added.

"This senseless atrocity follows years of threats, abuse, lies and various forms of violent intimidation, against the directors of Quinn Industrial Holdings.

"Maybe some people in our region need to examine their consciences about their angry rants at public meetings and defamatory statements on one or more social media sites.

"They need to face the truth that their diatribes added to that climate of intimidation and incited hatred leading up to this dark deed.

"Let them now take responsibility for their actions and learn lessons."

Quinn Industrial Holdings was founded by Seán Quinn but the company later collapsed and was bought over by businessmen backed by three investment funds.

Mr Quinn was employed as a consultant at his former company but left that role in 2016.

Quinn executives have allegedly been subject to repeated attacks, something Mr Quinn has publicly condemned on a number of occasions.

A Belfast High Court hearing earlier in the year heard that Mr Lunney was targeted as part of a wider campaign involving arson attacks, firebombs and online harassment.