Taoiseach backs priest’s anti-violence stance over Lunney attack

Leo Varadkar offered his support to Fr Oliver O’Reilly from Ballyconnell parish.

Fr O’Reilly previously described a “long reign of terror” hanging over the Cavan-Fermanagh area and urged those involved to end the violence.

The Taoiseach said: “In his homily following the vicious assault on Kevin Lunney, Fr O’Reilly spoke from the heart and the head, and offered leadership to a distressed community.

“He offered moral guidance to his community, he condemned the savagery of the kidnapping and the ongoing campaign of intimidation, and called on everyone to co-operate with the authorities.

“I believe that Fr O’Reilly showed considerable courage in giving this homily and I commend him for doing so.”

It was reported over the weekend that one of Fr O’Reilly’s parishioners, the businessman Sean Quinn, has written to the Vatican to complain.

The Quinn family have consistently condemned and distanced themselves from those attacking the new owners.

Mr Lunney, 50, a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), was snatched near his Co Fermanagh home and brutally assaulted in September.

The father of six spoke out about the attack in a BBC Spotlight interview, describing how he had been slashed with a knife, doused with bleach and branded by his captors before being dumped on a remote road in Co Cavan.

Criminals targeting QIH executives are believed to have been behind the…