'DUBLIN Jimmy' worked for and was friendly “all his life” with Seán Quinn, according to the deceased gangster’s brother, Fran McGuinness.

Speaking in the High Court in Dublin, Mr. McGuiness said that his brother, Cyril McGuinness, also lived in a property in Derrylin which was once owned by Mr. Quinn.

Mr. McGuinness (62), a Dublin native who now lives in Newry, Co. Down, claims he has been the victim of harassment by An Garda Síochána over several years because of his brother.

Mr. McGuinness is suing the Garda Commissioner and the State in the Republic over what he feels is the unlawful search of his truck business premises next door to the former family home at Pinnock Hill, Dublin, on August 23, 2014.

He claims gardaí wrongly associated him with a series of attacks on the former Quinn Group, and that information used to swear the warrant for the search was untrue.

He also claims gardaí caused unnecessary damage to two gates to the premises, and seized important documents for his UK truck trading companies. 

They also took envelopes containing £2,000 and €1,800, which were commission payments for other traders which he later had to make up for, he claimed.

“I believe that in the absence of getting him [Cyril], that I was on the side of the Swords Road and I was their second choice,” Mr. McGuiness told the court. 

The defendants have denied the claims.

Mr. McGuinness said he had been estranged from his brother for many years before his death. Cyril McGuinness collapsed and later died of a cardiac arrest following a police raid of his home in Derbyshire in 2019.

In court, Mr. McGuiness claimed there was “bad blood” between himself and the gardaí, and that he believed the fact that Cyril was his brother was “the driving force” behind the authorities' attention.

Asked by counsel what complaints he wanted dealt with, he said he wanted the court to “deliver me some satisfaction in relation to the police cutting down my gates and taking my property”, as well as over what he said was harassment by the force for the past 30 years.

“They made an allegation that they could connect me with the arson attacks on the Quinn property, and I had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Asked by counsel and the judge to explain why he had introduced Cyril McGuiness into the case, he said he wanted to make the court aware of the background to the 2014 search.

“Cyril was a person of notoriety, and they [An Garda Síochána] suspected him of being involved in the arson of the Quinn property,” he said.

Counsel said there were many newspaper stories that he [Cyril McGuiness] was supposed to be the mastermind behind the campaign against the former Quinn property.

“Does that make it true?” Mr. McGuinness replied. “He [Cyril McGuiness] was friendly with Seán Quinn all his life and he worked for him as a subcontractor and lived in Derrylin in a property once owned by Seán Quinn.

“I am not, and never was, my brother’s keeper, and I am saying that is why I have been subjected to Garda harassment.”

The case continues before Mr. Justice David Nolan.