Ireland's richest man fucked by the fairies

[devogue]

Sean Quinn was once Ireland's richest man, with a fortune of €4.7bn, before his huge gamble on Anglo Irish Bank shares toppled him into bankruptcy.

But for some in his heartland on the Cavan/Fermanagh border, Quinn's downfall has more to do with the wrath of the fairies than risky business moves.

According to these locals, it was the decision to move a megalithic burial tomb 20 years ago which led to the fall of his cement, hotels, and insurance empire.

The Aughrim Wedge Tomb stood for 4,000 years in the townland after which it is named, two miles outside Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.

But when it got in the way of the expansion of a massive quarry for Quinn Concrete in 1992, permission was granted by the Office of Public Works to move it.

Following a full excavation of the site, it was moved -- stone by stone -- and relocated in the grounds of Mr Quinn's Slieve Russell Hotel on the other side of the village.

Mr Quinn has since lost the cement works, the hotel, a raft of other businesses and his multi-billion euro fortune. According to bankruptcy documents, he now claims to have just €11,000 in the bank.

Some locals have linked the movement of the tomb to Mr Quinn's financial woes.

"I'm a big supporter of Sean Quinn because of what he has done for this area but that tomb should never have been moved," said publican Toirbhealach Lyons, the owner of Molly Maguire's pub in Ballyconnell.

"There would be a lot of people who would think you could never have any luck after moving an ancient tombstone."

Such superstitions are common and widely believed according to University of Ulster folklore expert Seamus MacFlionn.

"Cavan is full of ancient sites like these and therefore many people there would be more superstitious about moving any ancient rath, tomb or fairy tree," he said.

"People do genuinely believe that to do so brings bad luck. It's part of our ancient Irish history," he added.

However, not everyone in the area subscribes to the view that the movement of the tomb brought Mr Quinn his bad luck. One sceptic is Ballyconnell butcher Gerard Crowe, "It's a load of auld rubbish. . . Simple as that," he said.



Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... z1f0OEj6Mo

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I have a dish of milk on the back step just in case.

[Drewish]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

He was probably heavily leveraged, owing more than he was worth on the expectation of making more money in the future.

[Feck]

Well, good .

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Reminds me of a line from "How the West Was Won", "He made three fortunes and spent four."

[Drewish]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

He was probably heavily leveraged, owing more than he was worth on the expectation of making more money in the future.

But at what point does any person say, "Hmmm, I don't think a few billion Euros is enough to play with for investments. I'd better borrow some more cash as venture capital." ???

[klr]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

He was probably heavily leveraged, owing more than he was worth on the expectation of making more money in the future.

But at what point does any person say, "Hmmm, I don't think a few billion Euros is enough to play with for investments. I'd better borrow some more cash as venture capital." ???

Welcome to the wacky world of high finance during the days of the Celtic Tiger. People were being given loans as if there was no tomorrow.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

He was probably heavily leveraged, owing more than he was worth on the expectation of making more money in the future.

But at what point does any person say, "Hmmm, I don't think a few billion Euros is enough to play with for investments. I'd better borrow some more cash as venture capital." ???

I've seen leveraging of 30-1 and 40-1. It's a very clear disconnect from reality, and a symptom of what caused this mess in the first place.

[Animavore]

Yeah. The fairies. Sure.

[klr]

The real scandal about this is that he's claimed bankruptcy in the North of Ireland, where the laws are much more lax than in the Republic. In theory, he could be back in business in a year or so, as opposed to 12 years south of the border.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

...People were being given loans as if there was no tomorrow.

And now there's not.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

He was probably heavily leveraged, owing more than he was worth on the expectation of making more money in the future.

But at what point does any person say, "Hmmm, I don't think a few billion Euros is enough to play with for investments. I'd better borrow some more cash as venture capital." ???

I've seen leveraging of 30-1 and 40-1. It's a very clear disconnect from reality, and a symptom of what caused this mess in the first place.

It was all one big leprecon!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It's leprechauns all the way down.

[Svartalf]

How the fuck does somebody lose 4.7 billion Euros? Holy hell, wouldn't you put aside a couple million just in case your investments didn't work out? Or is the bankruptcy just so he can keep more of his money, and not have to pay up the full amount?

He was probably heavily leveraged, owing more than he was worth on the expectation of making more money in the future.

But at what point does any person say, "Hmmm, I don't think a few billion Euros is enough to play with for investments. I'd better borrow some more cash as venture capital." ???

When you're actually trying to get a certain percentage of something's capital to make a leveraged buyout.