If your into that kind of thing.... In Sunderland he is hailed as the hero, celebrated in song, who knocked in goals, gave away a fortune for charity, and then helped to rescue his beloved club as the head of an Irish consortium. Now that he is back home in Ireland, Niall Quinn is striving for more success with his new satellite broadband company, Q-Sat. He claims on his ads that he can bring the internet to anywhere where you can see the sky. But life is not all plain sailing for the man who is often referred to as "Saint Niall''. One of his property ventures has run into trouble, and he says he is determined to sort it out. Niall Quinn is co-owner of a ghost apartment complex in Co Carlow. The towering block of flats overlooking the River Barrow in Bagenalstown has been empty and unfinished for a number of years after funding for its completion dried up. Quinn's company, Manorfield Taverns -- in which he has a 50pc stake -- started the landmark building project at the peak of the boom. But it was delayed by planning logjams and the property crash. According to a local property expert, two-bed flats in the complex might have fetched â¬200,000 in the good times five years ago. Now they would be worth â¬45,000 to â¬50,000, if they were finished. Quinn says he hopes the 15 one- and two-bed apartments will now be turned into homes for the elderly. "We are in discussions about this with the county council, and I would be really happy if that takes place." He says: "It was not the pot of gold that I hoped it would be, and it has cost me a lot of money, but I remain committed to the project, and we are capable of finishing it." Niall Quinn's company also owns a pub next to the flats. It was closed for more than six years, but reopened two years ago. Most recent figures for the pub and apartment development's holding company, Manorfield Taverns, show an annual loss of â¬541,918. Its net liabilities were â¬3,385,724, according to the latest company accounts for the year up to end of January 2010 before the pub reopened. Cosmo Flood, a developer from Mount Merrion in Dublin, is listed as the other shareholder. Quinn says of his Bagenalstown investment: "This is not a NAMA situation, and I have not ducked the issue. The apartments are 95pc completed. "I could have walked away and left the pub and the apartments unfinished, but at least the place is alive." While the flats are empty and forlorn, at lunchtime the pub, which now bears Quinn's name, was doing a busy trade when I dropped in this week. Local people give the former Sunderland chairman credit for not walking away. Local councillor David O'Brien says: "In fairness to him, he has done his best to see a way out of it.'' With the benefit of hindsight, one might wonder what the appeal of apartments in a relatively sleepy backwater like Bagenalstown might be. But there was an element of misfortune in the Quinn property project. He applied for planning permission to build the flats in 2004, when the property market was flying, but it was delayed by objections. "We were hit badly by the planning delays. We were held back for a few years and by the time it was up and running we were into the recession," he says. If Quinn's latest plan gets the go-ahead, the council will lease the flats to provide homes for the elderly. That could be the eventual fate of dozens of other similar ghost apartment schemes started by other developers across the country. Quinn is absolutely determined to turn his project around, and highly sensitive to any negative publicity it might attract. Few sporting figures have commanded so much respect and positive coverage -- for his charitable work as much as for his sporting prowess. But he is concerned that he might attract criticism over his Carlow property venture. Quinn acknowledges that he has taken a risk in trying to carve out a career as a businessman back in Ireland, after he stepped down as international director of Sunderland. "A lot of people say I am mad to come back here, to go into business at this time,'' he told me. "I was relegated twice in my football career and there is a tendency for everyone to blame each other when things go wrong. The important thing is to work together with a positive attitude." Quinn is pinning his hopes on Q-Sat, a company that provides broadband in areas of the country where there is no landline coverage. The internet signal is beamed down from the Hylas 1 satellite. "We have over 5,000 customers already. There is a potential market of 200,000 people out there, and we are expanding into Britain where there is a market of three million." "Eventually I am looking at bringing satellite broadband to Africa," he says, with the zeal of a hi-tech missionary. Q-Sat is run by Quinn and David Whelan, one of his best friends. They sat next to each other in school and Whelan was best man at Quinn's marriage to Gillian Roe in 1992. While his Carlow property venture has proved costly, Quinn made a success of his chairmanship of Sunderland Football, and earned good money in the process. He was the central cog in the Drumaville consortium of Irish investors who bought the club for â¬12m in 2006. They invested a further â¬10.5m and sold it for â¬26m three years later. He showed his skills as a networker in pulling together a motley group of publicans and developers -- including Bertie Ahern's pal Charlie Chawke, and Louis Fitzgerald. He promoted the club relentlessly in Ireland, and at one stage Sunderland even had a tent at the Galway Races. He told me estimates of his salary at the club of £1m (â¬1.2m) per year were wide of the mark. Quinn says: "I had an arrangement where I was paid in shares. That was one of the reasons I left when I did, because the share price was favourable." The club is in a much healthier position, mid-table in the Premier League, than when he took over as chairman. At the time of his takeover, the club had just been relegated. The eventual lure of home was inevitable, however, and he is happy to be able to see his son play football every weekend. The Quinns live at Forenaughts, near Naas, in a palatial country mansion with stables and an equestrian track. One neighbour, who knows them through the horse business, said: "They are very well-liked in the area because of their community involvement.'' His ability to win over supporters would seem to make him an ideal candidate for politics. "I was approached to run by Fine Gael after I retired as a player," says Quinn. "But I turned it down. It's not the life for me. If I ever do go into politics I will allow you take a big hurley and hit me over the head." While Quinn has been away in Sunderland over the past half decade, Gillian has carved out her own career. She does modelling work for the First Options agency, and works as a Pilates instructor in Naas. She presented a show on Kildare TV until recently, and appeared as a coach on Celebrity Bainisteoir. As well as their satellite business, the couple have plenty of opportunities for lucrative work on TV to fall back on. "I have had three offers from TV companies recently," said Quinn. "I am not sure I will take them up during the European Championships, because my daughter is doing her Leaving Cert and my son is doing his Junior Cert. I want to be around at home at that time." He may have taken risks in returning here and he faces a huge challenge in trying to turn around his property business, but his Sunderland adventure showed that he can defy the sceptics and continue to prosper.
