Fr Oliver O’Reilly was born in Cornafean, Co Cavan. He has spent 15 to 20 years of priestly ministry in the Quinn heartland around Cavan, Fermanagh and Leitrim. He was parish priest in Kildallan parish — which takes in Ballyconnell — from 2015 to 2022. Over the years, he got to know Seán Quinn as well as some of the directors of his former companies. He was aware of the intimidation campaign that culminated in the vicious attack on Kevin Lunney and the devastating impact it had in the community. A week after the attack, Fr O’Reilly delivered a sermon in which he called out the “Mafia style” group with its own “godfather” operating behind the scenes in the region, the “powerful paymaster with his criminal gang”.
This story continues at ‘Irish Independent’