Mr Quinn has served six weeks of a nine-week sentence in Mountjoy Prison for breaking court orders not to interfere with the family's €500 million international property portfolio and next week he will miss spending Christmas with his wife and children for the first time in nearly 40 years of marriage.
Mr Quinn -- who is due to be released on January 4 -- will also be absent from the christening of his granddaughter this weekend, something his daughter Ciara has said will be like "a dark cloud over the entire day" in a letter to the governor of Mountjoy Prison requesting that he be released for Christmas.
And now the family are under renewed pressure with the possibility of Sean Junior, who spent three months in prison earlier this year, returning to jail if he is unable to purge his contempt. Last week, he offered to sell the home he shares at Castleknock, Dublin with his new wife and hand over all the proceeds to the court, but he says he is being asked by the court to do things that are "impossible".
"It was a difficult decision to make selling our apartment but with the prospect of going back to jail hanging over me it was one Karen and I felt we had to make," Mr Quinn told this newspaper.
"It is just over seven months since Karen and I got married and I have been in jail for three of those months, dad has been in jail for a further six weeks and we have been forced to sell our apartment so it has certainly been a difficult start to married life," he said.
In a letter from Arthur McLean Solicitors, a copy of which has been obtained by The Impartial Reporter, Judge Elizabeth Dunne was told that Mr Quinn wished "to take whatever steps are open to him to purge his contempt".
The court was asked to defer the marketing and sale of the property until September next year to allow Mr Quinn and his wife "some months to regularise their lives together" following "the turbulent events of the last few months."
In attempting to purge his contempt, the court was told that Mr Quinn had transferred a number of assets, including shares held by him in a company known as CJSC Logistica and monies received by him from three Russian companies known as Finansstroy, Logistica and Red Sector.
The letter added: "Subject to the foregoing caveat and to avoid any misunderstanding, we have been instructed to confirm that our client did not then have, and does not now have, any direct or indirect ownership or control of any Quinn Group companies or IPG (International Property Group) companies or assets by reason of your client's actions taken on April 14 2011 which are the subject matter of proceedings between our respective clients."
Mr Quinn says he has experienced a number of difficulties whilst trying to purge his contempt, including being so far unable to obtain statements from Russian bank accounts. He now fears a return to jail in the new year, but says he is prepared for it.
"We can only do what is in our power and we have always said we would do whatever to purge our contempt. Unfortunately we are being asked to do things that are just impossible to do and while nobody wants a prison sentence hanging over them I am prepared for that eventuality."
He added: "We are positive about the new year. We are getting tremendous support from people all over the country and we hope to have a full legal team appointed very shortly which will help provide the platform for us to prove that the loans advanced by Anglo were illegal."
Meanwhile, it is believed there has been no response from Mountjoy Prison following the family's request to have Sean Senior released for Christmas. In a letter to the prison governor, Ciara Quinn described the birth of her daughter in August of this year as "the only good in my life over the past 19 months" and said not having her father at the christening [which is this Saturday] "will leave a large void in the ceremony and a dark cloud over the entire day," adding: "My father is a devoted family man and to miss his granddaughter's christening would negatively affect him." She requested temporary release for her dad from December 22 to December 27.
And as the court appearances and the legal battles with the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation look set to continue long into 2013, an employee appeals tribunal concerning Sean Quinn's youngest daughter Brenda and her time as a claims handler at Quinn Insurance in Blanchardstown will be heard on December 28.
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