Bust billionaire Sean Quinn has broken down in tears and told an Irish festival crowd that he ‘will clear his name’ within two to three years.
Quinn was the guest of honor at the Ballinamore Family Festival in Leitrim when he made an emotional address to the thousand strong crowd.
The Irish Independent reports that he was cheered by the crowd as he attacked Anglo Irish Bank and the government’s handling of the economic crisis,
He also said that journalist Paul Williams, a native of Ballinamore, had ‘done more to expose what went on than all the other media put together’ with his publication of the Anglo Tapes.
Quinn has been visiting the festival for more than 40 years.
He told the crowd: “I used to come up on a Sunday night and I would get robbed, but I only thought I was being robbed when you see what has happened since.
“I don’t want to go into the detail of the Anglo case. If I’m to blame for any of this, I apologise. I made mistakes.
“We certainly made lots of mistakes. There is no way I should have invested so much money in Anglo Irish Bank. I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t know they were what they were.”
He attacked the running of the country for the past 15 years by various Irish governments and said he was boosted by letters of support received during his time in Mountjoy prison.
Quinn added: “I think I’ll be able to stand up here in two or three years’ time and say I’ve been vindicated.”
Festival committee member Adrian Smyth told the crowd that Quinn ‘never forgot where he came from’.
He said: “The landscape of the Ballinamore community would be a great deal different if it wasn’t for people like Sean Quinn creating jobs.
“The real and tangible results of this were that community groups could prosper, spin-off businesses were created, football clubs could field an extra team, scout troops had an extra patrol and schools could stay open and maybe have an extra teacher.
“It might not have seemed a lot, but when you take all that away the results are drastic.”
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